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THE CAPE COD 



^^aiTiriAib ®mam^^A^i( 



AT BilRIVSTABLiE, 

ff 



Sept. 3, 183», 

OF THE INCORPORATION OF THAT TOWN, 

W X 8cpt. 3, 1639. 

GIVING A FULL DETAIL OF THE PRELIMINARY PROCEED- 
INGS OF THE COMMITTEES, AND THE SPEECHES 
AND TOASTS AT THE DINNER. 

CORRJECTL.Y REPORTED AND REVISED. 



SARNSTABLi: : 

S. B. PHINNEY, 



1840. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, 

By S. B. Phinney, 

In the Clerks Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



Printed at the 
Barnstable Patriot Office. 



PREFACE 



THE GREAT CENTENNIAL AT BARNSTABLE, 

DEDICATED TO THE PRESENT GENERATION 

AND TO THEIR POSTERITY 

IN 1939. 

Is it not befitting that the relics of this ever memorable festival 
should be gathered up and preserved, as a memorial of those 
who partook of its intellectual bounties, to be transmitted to 
their descendants, when another Century shall have rolled 
away ? With what delight should we have discovered an an- 
cient pamphlet or manuscript, detailing the doings of the na- 
tives of Cape Cod, at the first Centennial observance of its 
settlement in 1739. No such record exists. Let it be our 
care that a third Centennial shall not be without such a docu- 
ment, establishing, as we believe this little pamphlet is destined 
to do, a precedent for all coming time, and going forth, with the 
force of a decree to posterity " in no case to let that day pass 
without solemnity, but to celebrate, in every hundredth year, the 
third day of that ninth month called September." 

These considerations and the very general call to preserve 
the doings of the 3d of September, 1839, in a more acceptable 
|0fm, than through the scattered files of newspapers, *have induc- 
ed the Publisher to collect all the materials of interest, connected 
with that occasion, and embody them in a pamphlet, trusting, at 
least to defray the expense of the labor through those who par- 



4 

ticipated in llic pleasures of that day, and others who wouhl 
have been but were not present. As a proof of the liberality and 
promptness with which the arrangements were concerted and 
carried out, it is proper to record the fact, that after paying 
every expense incurred, a surplus of about $500 remained of 
the subscriptions that had been raised to give effect to the cel- 
ebration. 

The following pages contain every thing of interest that oc- 
curred on that memorable occasion, which gave universal plea- 
sure, and which has been pronounced, by all who witnessed it, 
as the most fortunate and effective public observance within 
their recollection. Nor was the pleasure which was so univer- 
sally enjoyed and so entirely unmarred on that day, trifling or 
evanescent. The farther we shall be removed from it by time, 
the more gratifying will it be to recur to it, and read over its de- 
tails, to revive associations that we shall love to cherish in the 
pleasant memory of the past. 

In addition to the Speeches and Toasts that appeared in the 
newspapers, the Publisher is indebted to several gentlemen for 
sentiments and remarks that have not before been published, and 
lie is now able to offer the public a full and corrected account 
of the entire proceedings. 

It was indeed a proud day for Cape Cod, and its moral influ- 
ences will long be felt in the increased estimate abroad, of the 
persevering industry and substantial wortli of her sons and 
daughters, which had before been formed rather from the bar- 
renness of her soil, than the dcvelopcment of her social virtues. 
We do not know of a better recommendation that an enter- 
prising son of the Cape could carry abroad, than one of these 
pamphlets, with the right to claim Cape Cod as his native soil. 
May another hundred years find her a hundred fold advanced in 
frugal prosperity, substantial virtue and social happiness. 
Barnstable, Jan. ], 1840. 



NOTICE. 

ttT^yl meeting of the citizens of Barnstable, will 
be held at the Court House, on SATURDAY AF- 
TERNOON next, at 3 o^ clock, for the purpose of 
taking into consideration such measures as may be 
thought expedient, preparatory to the celebration, in 
June next, of the second Centennial year of the set- 
tlement of Barnstable. 

April 2Sd, 1839. 



CEI¥TE]VI¥IAL< CEI.EBRATI01V. 

Pursuant to notice published in the Barnstable 
Patriot, a meeting of the citizens of Barnstable 
without distinction of party was held at the Court 
House on Saturday afternoon last, for the purpose of 
taking measures preparatory to a celebration of the 
second Centennial year of the incorporation of Barn- 
stable. The meeting was called to order by David 
Crocker, Esq., and Henry Crocker, Esq. was chosen 
Chairman, and Nathaniel Hinckley, Esq. Secretary. 
After some discussion, on motion of David Crocker, 
Esq., Rev. George W. Woodward, Messrs. Josiah 
Hinckley, Zenas D. Bassett, Zeno Scudder, and 
Henry Crocker, were chosen a Committee to pro- 
cure more particular information relative to the set- 
tlement and incorporation of the Town, and report 
at the adjournment of this meeting. On motion of 
Mr. David Bursley, Voted, that the proceedings of 



this meeting be published in the Barnstable and 
Yarmouth papers. 

Adjourned to meet at this. place on Wednesday, 
the 8th of May next, at 7 1-2 o'clock, P. M. 

HENRY CROCKER, Chairman, 

Nathaniel Hinckley, Secretary. 



PUBLIC MEiETIIV^iJ. 

An adjourned meeting of the citizens of Barnsta- 
ble, for the purpose of making preparations for the 
second Centennial Celebration, was held at the 
Court House on Wednesday Evening May 8th. 

The Rev. Mr. Woodward of a Committee ap- 
pointed at a former meeting, presented the following 

REPORT: 

That they have been much embarrassed in their 
investigations by the short time allowed them, it 
being but ten days, in connection with the fact that 
no books Avere to be found in town which would af- 
ford any light on the subject. They were obliged to 
obtain them, by letter, mostly from those valuable 
institutions whose object is to treasure up the rem- 
nants of by-gone days. And they would take this 
opportunity to say that but for the kind aid and in- 
vestigations of that venerable Antiquarian, Doctor 
TiiACTiER, of Plymouth, they must have failed, situ- 
ated as they were, even of that success which they 
have been able to meet with. 

The only positive authority which they find for 
the date of the incorporation of this Town, is that 
of the Rev. Mr. Mellen, in a paper communicated to 
the Mass. Hist. Soc. and published by them in their 



7. 

collections for the year 1794, (vol. 3. p. 15,) entitled 
" A Topographical description ot the Town of Barn- 
stable " — He says, " There is no account to be found 
of the first settlement made in this Town. Probably 
there was none made much before its incorporation, 
which was September 3d, 1639; but two persons 
are named in the original grant." The author does 
not state his authorities, but we may infer, from the 
last clause, that he had the " original grant " before 
him, and we find that which confirms his statements 
strongly, in every particular, though no other author- 
ity for the exact day. 

Baley, in his " Historical Memoir of Plymouth 
Colony," gives an account of the settlement of sev- 
eral towns, going back generally to the original pur- 
chases from the Indians, but when speaking of 
Barnstable [vol. 1. p. 299] he begins his account 
with the removal of the Rev. John Lothrop, with 
most of his Church, from Scituate to this place, as 
though this were the first considerable settlement of 
the town, as it probably was. This removal took 
place October 11th, 1639, [vide, Mr. Mellen's ac- 
count — also. Dean's History of Scituate, p. 171 — 
also, Holmes' American Annals, v. l.p. 311, who 
says, " Yarmouth and Barnstable, in Plymouth Col- 
ony, were settled this year — 1639," and adds in a 
note, " the Church at Scituate was in a broken 
condition several years. The Rev. John Lothrop, 
with a part of that Church, removed to Cape Cod, 
and settled Barnstable, 11th Oct. 1639," and refers 
to Lothrop's M. S. Records, and President Stiles' 
M. S. S.] 

Baley likewise when speaking of the law, passed 



8 



in March 1638-9 [v. Plymouth Colony Laws, p 63] 
authorising the town to send deputies to the General 
Court, thus changing the government from a pure 
democracy to a representative form, says^ [v. 1 . p. 
298] " At the time of the passage of this law there 
were only three towns in this little Commonwealth, 
viz : Plymouth, Scituate, and Duxbury. Roxham 
or Mashfield, was yet a part of Duxbury, and Co- 
hannet or Taunton, although settled, and a Church 
either gathered or about to be gathered, was unin- 
corporated. After the passage of the law, and be- 
fore the next meeting of the Coiut, three important 
settlements were established on Cape Cod, viz : one 
at Mattacheest or Cummaquid, called Barnstable, 
one at Pocassett, called Sandwich, and one at Matta- 
cheest, called Yarmouth." And then, farther on, 
speaking of " the first representative legislative as- 
sembly in General Court," who met June 4, 1639, 
[v. Colony Laws, p. 63] the first meeting after the 
passage of the above law, he gives the names of the 
deputies, or representatives, from Plymouth, Dux- 
bury, Scituate, Taunton, Sandwich, and Yarmouth, 
and says, " Barnstable was not represented in this 
Court until December, and then Mr. Joseph Hull 
and Mr. Thomas Dimmack, appeared as deputies." 

We find, from the Plymouth Colony Laws, [p. 
63-64] that there was a General Court held in Sep- 
tember of this year, and an order passed at the same, 
" allowing the townships within the government to 
meet together, and to make such orders as shall be 
needful for the maintenance of good neighborhood, 
and to set penalties upon delinquents." All of which, 
taken in connection with the abstract and imperfect 

1 



9 

ibrm of these published doings of" the Court, affords 
a strong presumption that this might have been the 
precise time of the incorporation of this town, thus 
confirming the statements of Mr. Mellen as above. 

In conclusion, your Committee would simply say, 
that they have met with no one fact, or authority, 
which would serve to invalidate the authenticity of 
this date, Sept. 3, 1639, given by Mr. Mellen, as 
that on which the town was incorporated. All the 
evidence which they have met with, serves to show 
that there could have been very little of a settlement 
before that date ; none sufficient to mark any prom- 
inent point in the history of the town ; and also, that 
it must have been incorporated not far from the date 
which he gives. These facts, together with the very 
respectable authority of the Rev. Mr. Mellen, seem 
to them fully to warrant the fixing upon the said 
Sept. 3, 1639, as the date of the incorporation of 
this town, the earliest prominent date in its history, 
and therefore the one which should be taken, on 
which to celebrate its anniversary ; and also, equally 
to prohibit the selection of any earlier, or other day 
for that purpose. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

GEO. W. WOODWARD, Chairman. 

On motion of David Crocker, Esq. it was then 

Voted, That the tivo hundredth anniversary of the 
settlement of the town of Barnstable, be celebrated 
on the third day of September next. And it was 
thereupon 

Resolved, That a Committee of ten be appointed 
on the part of the citizens of the town of Barnstable 
to make the necessary arrangements for an ap])ro- 
priate celebration of the 200ih anniversary of the 



10 

incorporation of said Town on the 3d of September 
next — and that said Committee have full power to 
make selection of an Orator, and to make all other ar- 
rangements for the occasion, without calling another 
meeting of the citizens, miless they shall think such 
meeting expedient — and, whereas much interest has 
been manifested by many natives of Barnstable 
County, now resident in Boston, in the contemplated 
celebration of the settlement of the shire town of 
their native County, therefore 

Resolved, That the said Committee be requested 
to invite the co-operation of such citizens of Boston, 
by a Committee, or otherwise, in making selection of 
the Orator, and in all the arrangements for the said 
celebration. 

Voted, That the citizens of the other towns in this 
County, and tiie residents of any other towns or 
cities, who are natives of Barnstable County, are in- 
vited to join in the celebration. 

Messrs. Eben Bacon, Zeno Scudder, Warren 
Marchant, S. B. Phinney, and Isaac Chipman were 
appointed a Committee to nominate the aforesaid 
Committee of Arrangements — and they subsequently 
nominated for that Committee 

Messrs. 



Nymphas Marston, 
S. B. Phinney, 
Stephen C. Nye, 
William Lewis, and 
Warren Marchant, 



David Crocker, 
Henry Crocker, 
Eben Bacon, 
Zeno Scudder, 
Zenas D. Basset, 

and they were chosen. 

Messrs. Josiah Hinckley, David Bursley, and 
David Crocker were appointed a Committee to report 
a list of citizens of Boston, with whom the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements be directed to correspond 
relative to the celebration — and they subsequently 
reported the names of Messrs. William Sturgis, 



11 

JBenjamin F. Hallett, Thomas Gray, George Hallet, 
Joshua Sears, Francis Bacon and John L. Dhnmock, 
which report was accepted. 

Voted, That the Committee of Arrangements be 
authorised to fill all vacancies that may occur in 
their number. 

Voted, That the proceedings of this meeting, sign- 
ed by the Chairman and Secretary, together with 
the Report presented by the Rev. Mr. Woodward, 
be published in the County papers. 

HENRY CROCKER, Chairman. 

Nathaniel Hinckley, Secretary. 



FOREFATHERS OF BAR]^^STABL.E. 

The following interesting sketch of the first set- 
tlers of Barnstable, who were also among the most 
prominent men of the first New England Colonies, 
is taken from the Boston Mercantile Journal, the 
editor of which says, that it was written by "a 
friend who is familiar with the early history of the 
Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies." It can- 
not fail of being acceptable to all who feel an in- 
terest in the history of men and matters connected 
with the settlement of this or any other of the Cape 
towns. We have some reason to feel a degree of 
pride in those sterling men who were the progenitors 
of Barnstable. They belonged to that noble band 
of christians and patriots who were the founders of 
New England, and to whom she owes, by the bles- 
sing of God, her present moral and intellectual 
superiority, as well as much of her wealth and enter- 
prise through the medium of commerce and agricul- 
ture, which they promoted. If the forefathers of 



12 



Barnstable were among the distinguished of their 
day, so have been some of her sons. Tlie Hon. 
Harrison Gray Otis, Rev. Professor Palfrey, Chief 
Justice Shaw, the late lamented Attorney General 
Davis, are natives or immediately descended from 
natives of the town : 

"Barnstable was incorporated in 1639, but had 
then been settled some time by a few families. — 
Rev. Mr. Lothrop removed there in that year from 
Scituate, where he had resided over four years, with 
most of his church ; the following named were among 
them: — Anthony Annable, one of the first settlers of 
Scituate, Henry Cobb, who had lived sometime be- 
fore in Plymouth, George Lewis, J. Cooper, Isaac 
Robinson, son of the celebrated John Robinson, Pas- 
tor of the Leyden Church, B. Lombard, Henry 
Bourne, Samuel Hinckley, father of Gov. Thomas 
Hinckley, Thomas Dimmock, William Parker, John 
Allen, Henry Ewell, Robert Shelly, J. Crocker, 
Isaac Wells, Edward Casley. Mr. Lothrop was a 
learned and pious divine. Thomas Hinckley was 
chosen an assistant in Plymouth Colony in 1653, 
and in 1681, was elected Governor, on the death of 
Josiah Winslow. Mr. Hinckley was an able and 
faithful Chief Magistrate of the Colony; and when 
Plymouth was united with Massachusetts, 1692, he 
was appointed one of the Council. Pie was also one 
of Sir Edward x4.ndros's Council in 1686, '7, '8 — 
and some one has expressed surprise, that he occupi- 
ed the trnst under that arbitrary Governor. But he 
did not consent to the measures of Andros, and very 
seldom attended the meetings of the Council after 
the first. This was also the case with Bradford, 
Barnabas Lothro]), and John Walle}', '\^ ho were; the 
other Councillors from Plymouth Colony. They 
never attended more than one or two of the meet- 
ings. Most of the Councillors of Massachusetts also 
absented themselves, as they did not approve of the 
conduct of the Governor. It was said that all was 



13 

planned and ordered by Andros, his creature Ran- 
dolph, and four others, were also the tools of his 
will. J D y was one of them. 

" Gov. Hinckley died some time in the year 1706, 
at the age of 85 or 88. Gov. Hutchinson says, 
aged 74, but it is a mistake, probably a typographi- 
cal error. One writer says he was 88, and another 
85 — one of these is probably correct, and eight be 
five, or five eight. If either of these be correct, he 
was then born in 1618 or 1621. If this be admitted, 
then Rev. Mr. Mellen in his history of Barnstable, 
is mistaken in saying he was a native of that town. 
Then also is the writer of a history of Scituate mis- 
taken. The father came to New England with or 
about the same time with the Rev. Mr Lothrop, which 
was in 1634. Even then, if Hutchinson is correct. 
Gov. Hinckley was not born in New England. Rev. 
Thomas Prince, the New England Annalist, says he 
was 85, and he is the best authority, for he was very 
accurate and had possession of Gov. Hinckley's papers 
after his death, and was I think, his grandson. Gov. 
Hinckley long had the care of the Indians on the 
Cape, and was always anxious for their improvement, 
and the protection of their rights, and they were nu- 
merous there in early times. Gov. Bradford, in 1622, 
describes Janough, the Sachem, as of a mild and 
gentle spirit. Rev. Experience Mayhew father of 
the celebrated Dr. Jona. Mayhew, married a daugh- 
ter of Gov. Hinckley — but the mother of Dr. May- 
hew was a Bourne, and his second wife. 

" Major Walley was an able and brave man, second 
in command under Sir Wm. Phips, in the expe- 
dition against the French in Canada, 1690 — 1691. 
Walley was also in higher civil office for several 
years. He removed to Bristol R. I., but then within 
the limits of Massachusetts, and afterwards to Bos- 
ton, where he died in 1710, or 1711. The sons of 
Rev. Mr. Lothrop were very respectable — one or 
more moved to Connecticut, (Norwich,) and their 
descendants have been useful and eminent citizens. 



14 

James Otis was a native of Barnstable. His father, 
James Otis, was also a public character, and an ar- 
dent patriot. His chara^Lter was self made, for he was 
a mechanic in earlj life — but rose to be a Jud^e of a 
Court, a Representative, and one of the Council for 
several years. He was a leading character in the 
Old Colony in 1775 — 1776. His son is well recol- 
lected as the most eloquent advocate for the rights of 
the people, at that critical time, and one of whom 
the British agents stood most in fear. For he w^as 
learned, as well as eloquent, and could show that 
their measures were arbitrary, and an infringement on 
the rights of British subjects. 

" In olden times, the West parish was the most 
populous ; it was indeed the first, and for many years 
the only one in the town. It was called Great 
Marshes, on account of very extensive salt marshes 
there, which was one great inducement with Mr. 
Lothrop and his people, to settle there. But the 
East part of the town is now the court end — there 
is the Court House and the other public buildings of 
the County, and it is now far the most compact and 
populous." B. 



BARlVf^TABIiE CEIVTEIVIVIAI. CELEBRA- 
TIOIV. 

We give annexed, the proceedings of a meeting 
of citizens of Boston, and vicinity, who are natives, 
of Cape Cod, held at the Supreme Court Room, 
Boston, on the 5th June, for the purpose of adopting 
measures of co-operation with the resident citizens 
of Barnstable for celebrating the two hundredth anni- 
versary of its incorporation. 

At a meeting of the citizens of Boston and vicini- 
ty, native-born of Barnstable County, and their de- 
scendants, held at the Supreme Court Room, June 
5th, 1839, with reference to the observance of the 



15 

200th Anniversary of the Incorporation of Barnsta- 
ble, Hon. William Sturgis was chosen Chair- 
man, andB. F. Hallet, Secretary. The following 
Resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That as Cape Cod Bostonians we dearly 
cherish the good old frugal soil of our nativity, and 
will most heartily co-operate with our fellow citi- 
zens of Barnstable, in the observance of the 200th 
anniversary of its settlement on the 3d of Septem- 
ber, to which they have so kindly invited us. 

Resolved, That a Committee of nine be appoint- 
ed to take the necessary measures to give etKciency 
to the true meaning and intent of the foregoing 
Resolution; and Messrs. William Sturgis, B. F. 
Hallet, Thomas Gray, George Hallet, Joshua Sears, 
Francis Bacon, John L. Dimmock, Lemuel Pope, 
and Benjamin Burgess, were appointed the Com- 
mittee. 

Resolved, That we tender to our fellow citizens 
of Barnstable, all the facilities we can afford them, 
in enabling them to give effect to the day. 

Voted, That the Committee communicate the 
proceedings of this meeting to the Committee at 
Barnstable. 

Voted, That the Committee call an adjourned 
meeting to report progress when they think proper. 

Voted, That these proceedings be published in the 
papers of this city and of Barnstable County. 

WILLIAM STURGIS, Chairman. 

B. F. Hallet, Secretary. 



[Extract from the Barnstable Patriot of July 31.] 
CEIVTEIV]\1AL. AJ¥]VIVERSARY. 

As the time approaches for our Grand Jubilee, 
the interest therein increases. The preparations 



IG 

makiiiii are intended to be eommensurate with the 
company expected, and tlie hilarity which the occa- 
sion calls for. The Address, which is to be hy 
Professor Palfrey, will be at the Meeting House, 
which is to be fitted for the occasion. The large 
windows of the same are to be removed and addi- 
tional wings on either side to be added. We learn that 
the Committee for procuring the erection of a Pavil- 
ion for the Dinner, have contracted to have one 
erected near the Court House for the accommoda- 
tion of from 1000 to 1200 persons, for the lease of 
which for the occasion they have agreed to give 
;^'800. It is to be 112 feet long by 88 feet wide. 

The Committee of Arrangements for the Ball in 
the evening, have also contracted for the erection of 
another Pavilion for dancing merely, to be 75 feet 
long and to be attached to the south end of the Court 
House, of the same width with the Court House, 40 
feet. For the lease of this building for the occasion, 
they are to give $325. The builders of these Pavil- 
ions are to remove them directly after the day of the 
celebration — the above sums are only for the use of 
the buildings on the occasion. The Ball Committee 
have also procured the liberty of the County Com- 
missioners to use the numerous rooms of the Court 
House for saloons, dressing and refreshment rooms, 
&c. for the Ball — and the building to be attached is 
for dancing exclusively. 

The escort duty of the day is to be performed by 
the New England Guards of Boston, accompanied 
by the Brass Band. The same Band is to perform 
at the Ball in the evening. 



17 

Tickets for the Dinner are deposited with the fol- 
lowing persons for sale, viz : 

Henry Crocker, ^ 

Eben Bacon, > Barnstable. 

S. B. Phinnej, ) 

Stephen C. Nye, West Barnstable. 

Z. D. Basset, Hyannis. 

Warren Marchant, Osterville. 

.Luther Hinckley, Marston's Mills. 

Joel Powers, > o i • i 

^.T.,,. T • / feandwich. 

William Loring, ) 

Richard S. Wood, Falmouth. 

Amos Otis, Jr. Yarmouth. 

Nehemiah Baker, South Dennis. 

Judah Paddock, East Dennis. 

Jeremiah Mayo, Brewster. 

Simeon Higgins, Orleans. 

Samuel P. Bourne, Harwich. 

Samuel Small, Chatham. 

Ebenezer S. Smith, Provincetown. 

Scudder & Parker, Nantucket. 

Persons who intend participating in the celebra- 
tion, are requested to purchase their tickets without 
delay, as the number is limited, and no tickets will 
be sold after the 20th of August. No provision can 
be made to accommodate a greater number of per- 
sons than has already been made. All persons hav- 
ing tickets on sale, are requested to make returns to 
Eben Bacon, Esq. on or before the 29th of August 
next. Tickets for Gentlemen, - ,^1 50 

Do. for Ladies, - - - 1 00 



18 

[Extract froia the Barnstable Patriot of Aug. 7.] 

CE]¥XEIV]V1AL.. 

The interest in our grand Jubilee increases daily. 
The Pavilion for dining and that for dancing, are 
both going up. The Committee of Arrangements 
finding the sale of tickets for the dinner more rapid 
than was anticipated, and fearing that their prepara- 
tions for the accommodation of the guests would not 
be sufficient, have contracted for the erection of the 
Pavilion on a larger plan than was first anticipated, 
so as to accommodate three or four hundred more 
persons. We advise our friends, far and near, to 
secure their tickets early. 

The arrangements for the Ball in the evening are 
also being made on the most liberal scale. 

The Collation is to be provided by the Committee 
in Boston, who have contracted, we understand, to 
do the handsome thing in that respect ; — as also to 
furnish the refreshments for the Ball, &lc. 

Our young ladies are also on the qui vice — and 
are making preparations for dressing and decorating 
the dancing Pavilion and Saloon in a tasteful and 
appropriate manner. 

The Steamer Bangor is to leave Boston on the 
Saturday previous to the celebration, with the New- 
England Guards, the Brass Band, and other guests, 
and will return on Sunday, to leave again for Barn- 
stable on Monday, with those who shall seasonably 
procure passage in her. She will leave here again 
on Wednesday after the celebration, for Boston. 



19 

List of the Committees for the arrangements to cele- 
brate, and of the Officers who are to participate 
in the Jubilee on the 3d of September. 

Committee of Arraiigementi^. 

David Crocker, Z. D. Bassett, 

Nymphas Marston, Josiah Hinckley, 

Henry Crocker, Eben Bacon, 

Stephen C. Nye, S. B. Phinney, 

Warren Marchant, Zeno Scudder, 

of Barnstable. 

William Sturgis, Lemuel Pope, 

Benjamin F. Hallet, Benjamin Burgess, 

Thomas Gray, John L. Dimmock, 

George Hallet, Francis Bacon, 



Joshua Sears, 



of Boston, 



Chiei* j^[ar§hal, 

HENRY CROCKER. 

Aids. 

John L. Dimmock, Z. D. Bassett, 

William A. Lewis, S. B. Phinney. 



i^Iarskalnsi, 

David Bursley, Watson Freeman, 

Nathaniel Hinckley, Thomas W. Sears, 

Isaac Chipman, Lemuel B. Simmons, 

Enoch T. Cobb, Thomas Holmes, 

Job Handy, Sidney Ainsworth, 

Freeman Howland, John C. Crocker, 

Daniel Basset, Barnabas Davis, 

Thomas Stetson, Jr., Samuel S. Crocker, 

Thomas B. Pope, Joseph A. Davis, 

Charles C. Bearse, Albert Alden, 

George Jenkins, Seth Parker, Jr. 

Elisha Atkins, Thomas Crocker, Jr. 

William Haw^es, Frederick Lewis, 

Luther Hinckley, Ferdinand G. Kelley. 
Warren Marchant, 



President of the Day, 

Hon. NYMPHAS MARSTON. 



20 



Vice Presidents, 

David Crocker, - Benjamin Bangs, 

Robert Bacon, Prince Hawes, 

Benjamin Rich, John Munroe, 

William Lewis, Josiah Sampson, 

Lemuel Pope, Daniel C. Bacon, 

Ezra Crocker, Josiah Hinckley, 

George Hallet, Walter Crocker, 

Ezra A. Bourne, Charles Marston, 

Benjamin Burgess, Thomas Thacher, 

Thomas Percival, Stephen C. Nye, 

Matthew Cobb, Zeno Scudder. 



Orator, 

JOHN GORHAM PALFREY, D.D. 



Chaplain, 

Rev. GEORGE W. WOODWARD. 



Toast Master, 

BENJAMIN F. HALLET. 



Toast Committee, 

Benjamin F. Hallet, Zeno Scudder, 

Henry Crocker, John L. Dimmock. 

Joshua Sears, 



Committee to proeure Collatioia. 

William Sturgis, John L. Dimmock, 

George Hallet, Eben Bacon. 

Benjamin F. Hallet, 



Managers of the Hall. 

Francis Bacon, S. B. Phinney, 

Thomas Gray, Warren Marchant, 

F. W. Crocker, Eben'r. H. Eldridge, 

Adolphus Davis, Jacob G. Ilallett, 

Horace Scudder, James Davis, Jr. 



21 

CEIVTEI¥I¥IAL. CELEB RATIOIV. 

The Committee of Arrangements for the 2d Cen- 
tennial Celebration of the 3d of September next, 
respectfully give notice to their constituents and 
fellow citizens, that they have agreed on the follow- 
ing plan: — All persons wishing to join in the Cel- 
ebration, will assemble at the Old Court House and 
its immediate vicinity, punctually at 9 o'clock, where 
Marshals will be in attendance to form a procession, 
which will move to the Meeting House, where an 
Address will be delivered by Professor John G. 
Palfrey. The best and most extensive arrange- 
ments have been made, for the accommodation of 
the largest number possible at the Church. Mar- 
shals will be in attendance at 9 o'clock, at the 
Church, to conduct Ladies, and aged and infirm 
Gentlemen who are unable to join the procession, 
to seats reserved for them. Although all cannot 
obtain seats at the Church, the Committee trust and 
hope all will join in the procession on this most in- 
teresting occasion. Henry Crocker, Esq. has 
been appointed Chief Marshal, and the order and 
route of the procession will be duly made known by 
him. After the ceremonies at the Church, the pro- 
cession will again be formed, composed of those per- 
sons who are to partake of a Collation in a spacious 
Pavilion erected for the occasion ; the order of this 
procession will also be made known by the Chief 
Marshal. DAVID CROCKER, Chairman. 

Eben Bacon, Secretary. 

Aug. 21st, 1839. 



CEI\TEI¥1¥IAE CEI^EBRATIO]¥. 

BARNSTABLE, SEPT. 3d, 1839. 
FIRST PROCESSION. 

The Committee of Arrangements, and those 
Gentlemen to whom have been assigned offices for 
the day, and invited Guests, will assemble at the 



Old Court House ; and all those who intend to join 
the Procession, will assemble in the street East of 
the same, where a procession will be formed pre- 
cisely at 9 o'clock, by the Marshals, and when form- 
ed w^ill move up the street, and counter-march and 
proceed to the Meeting House, agreeably to the 
following order. 

Having appointed John L. Dimmock, William A. 
Lewis, Z. D. Basset, and S. B. Phinney, Esqr's., 
as Aids for the day, their orders, as such, are to be 
respectfully obeyed. 

HENRY CROCKER, Chief Marshal. 



Order oi* First Procession 

(From the Old Court House to the Meeting House.) 

Escort. 

Chief Marshal and Aids. 

Marshal.-President of the Day, Orator and Chaplains.-Marshal. 

Sheriff of the County of Barnstable. 

{Governor of the Commonwealth and Aids. 
Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer, and )■ Marshal. 
Secretary of State. 
C Adjutant General, and Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, 
Chief Justices and Associate Justices of 
the Supreme Judicial Courts, 
and 
Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas, '( 
Senators and Representatives in 
Congress, and other invited | 

Guests, four abreast. J 

{Vice Presidents, four abreast, \ 

Chairman of Committee of Arrangements, > Marshal. 
Committee of Arrangements. j 

Marshals.} Natives and descendants of Cape Cod, ) Marshals 
( Citizens and Strangers. J iudr&ii.iis. 



Marshal. -( 



) 



J> Marshal. 



23 
ORDER OF EXERCISES AT THE CHURCH. 



I 
VOLUNTARY BY THE BAND. 



H 
INTRODUCTORY PRAYER, 

BY REV. GEORGE W. WOODWARD. 



Ill 

ODE.— THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. 

BY MRS. HEMANS. T'lmc — Pilgrim Fathers. 

The breakinor waves dashed hicrh 

On a stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods, against a stormy sky. 

Their giant branches tost ; 

And the heavy night hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 

On the wild New England shore. 

Not as the conquerer comes, 

They, the true hearted came. 
Not with the roll of the stirring drums. 

And the trumpet that sings of fame; 

Not as the flying come, 

In silence and in fear, — 
They shook the depths of the desert's gloom 

With their hymns of lofty cheer. 

Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard, and the sea ! 
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 

To the anthem of the free ! 



24 

The ocean-eagle soared 

From his nest by the white wave's foam, 
And the rocking pines of the forest roared- 

This was their welcome home ! 

What sought they thus afar ? 

Bright jewels of the mine ? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? 

— They sought a faith's pure shrine ! 

Ay, Ccill it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod ! 

They left unstained what there they found- 
Freedom to worship God ! 



IV 
PRAYER, 

BY REV. FREEMAN PARKER, OF WISCASSET. 



V 
HYMN. 

From the Collection of Sternhold and Hopkins, A.D. 
1609, as used by the Pilgrims. 

Tune — Coronation. 

1. Attend my people to my lawe, 
and to my words incline ; 

My mouth shall speake strange parables, 
and sentences diuine ; 

2. Which we our selues haue heard and learnd, 
euen of our fathers old, 

And whicli for our instruction, 
ovr fathers haue vs told, — 

;{. That they and their posteritie, 

that were not sprung vp tho : 
Should haue the knowledge of the lawe, 

and teach then- seede also. 

3 



25 

4. That they may haue the better hope. 
In God that is aboue : 

And not forget to keepe his lawes, 
and his precepts in loue. 

5. For of his holy couenant, 
aye mindful was he tho : 

Which to his seruant Abraham, 
he plighted long agoe. 

6. He brought the people forth with mirth, 
and his elect with joy : 

Out of the cruell land, where they, 
had liued in great annoy. 

7. And of the heathen men he gaue, 
to them the fruitfuU lands : 

The labour of the people eke, 

they tooke into their hands. 
S. That they his holy statutes might, 

obserue for euermore : 
And faithfully obey his lawes, 

prayse ye the Lord therefore. 

9. Giue prayses then to God the Lord, 

and call vpon his name : 
Among the people eke declare, 

his workes to spread his fame. 
10. Sing ye vnto the Lord I say, 

and sing vnto his prayse : 
And talks of all his wondrous workes, 

that he hath wrought alwayes. 



VI 

ADDRESS, 

BY JOHN G. PALFREY, D.D. L.L.D. 



26 



VII 
ORIGINAL ODE— BY a native. 

Tune— Old Hundred. 
When o'er th'horizon's utmost verge 

With straining eyes, a pilgrim band, 
Devoutly, ere another day, 

Prayed they might see " the promised land ;"— 
W^liat rapture thrill'd throughout their souls, 

As with the earliest streak of light. 
These barren shores and snow-clad hills, 

Broke on their long expectant sight ! 

What aspirations then arose 

Of mingled gratitude and prayer, — 
And how pealed forth their hymns of praise. 

Upon the frosty morning air : — 
Their perils on the stormy sea, 

Their homes beyond the heaving main. 
Were all forgotten in the joy, 

With which they greeted land again. 

Lo ! after Centuries have passed 

Since they were gathered to the tomb. 
Another and a numerous host, 

To the same shores doth gaily come ; — 
Those were our Sires ! that host are we ! 

Of all their toil and thrift the heirs, 
God grant our memories be bles'd. 

As we this day do hallow theirs. 

No empty tribute do we bear. 

No cold and heartless homage bring, 
For round their altars and their graves, 

Our earliest recollections cling : 
Look down then, spirits of the just, — 

Ye who here lived and toiled and died. 
We greet anew our native soil. 

And ye, its glory and its pride. 



VIII 
BENEDICTION. 



27 



Second Procession. 

The Committee of Arrangements, invited Guests, 
and gentlemen who have accepted offices on the oc- 
casion, and Gentlemen accompanied by Ladies, will 
assemble at the Meeting House ; and all others -who 
are provided with tickets to the Collation, will 
assemble at the Masonic Hall, and at the rooms under 
the same. The Procession will be formed precisely 
at ONE o'clock, by the Marshals, in front of the Meet- 
ing House, and will be divided into four divisions, 
each to be headed by a Marshal and numbered. As 
soon as formed, it will move down the street. East- 
ward, there counter-march, and proceed to the en- 
closed ground of the Pavilion. The head of each 
division will halt opposite the entrance numbered to 
correspond with it ; and will enter the Pavilion two 
abreast under the particular direction of the Marshals, 
delivering their tickets to the officers stationed at the 
entrance. 

The Pavilion is so constructed that all can be well 
situated, and every person will be seated within a 
convenient distance of the center, and facing the 
same. There will be no occasion, therefore, for any 
haste and pressing for seats ; and as the arrange- 
ments will be much interrupted by such haste, and 
confusion ensue, the Marshals respectfully request 
the co-operation of all present in maintaining that 
decorum and good order for which the natives and 
descendants of Cape Cod are every where distin- 
guished. 

The following will be the order of Procession. 
HENRY CROCKER, Chief Marshal 



28 



Order ol' Second Procession 

(From the 3Iceting House to the Pavilion.) 

Escort. 

First Division. 

Chief Marshal and Aids. 

Marshal.-President of the Day, Orator and ChapIains.-MarshaL 

Sheriff of the County of Barnstable. 

Governor of the Commonwealth and Aids. 

Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer, and ^ Marshal. 

Secretary of State. 

Adjutant General, and Speaker of the 

House of Representatives, 

Chief Justices and Associate Justices of 

the Supreme Judicial Courts, 

and 



Marshal. 



r 



Marshal. 



) 



L 



Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas, 

Senators and Representatives in 

Congress, and other invited 

Guests, four abreast. 
Vice Presidents, four abreast, 



J> Marshal. 



3 



{Vice Presidents, four abreast, \ 

Chairman of Committee of Arrangements, > Marshal. 
Committee of Arrangements. J 



Committee of Arrangements. 

Second Division. 
Marshal. 
Marshals. Gentlemen and Ladies, four abreast. 

Third J)irision. 
Marshal. 
Marshals i Natives and descendants of Cape Cod, 
' ( four abreast. 

Fourth Division. 
Marshal. 
Marshals. Citizens and Strangers, four abreast. 



Marshals. 



Marshals. 



Marshals. 



Note. — To prevent confusion, and particularly to guard against 
accidents, owners and drivers of all horses and carriages are 
requested to remove the same from the street on the routes dur- 
ing the passage of this as well as the preceding procession. 



29 

THE CAPE €«D CEMTEP^I^IAI. AT BARIV- 
STABEE. 
The following account of the day, appeared in the 
Barnstable Patriot of September 4th. written by B. 
F. Hallet, Esq., Toast Master. 

The day has passed in all its brilliancy and beauty, 
and gloriously animated spirit, and in a manner 
worthy to make it the connecting link between the 
present and the past, and to be remembered until our 
posterity shall seek to emulate it at the end of anoth- 
er century. It gives a new date to the history and 
the fame of Cafe Cod, and if her sons were before 
proud of their origin, they will henceforth stand a 
tiptoe in the exultation of honorable and manly pride, 
when this day is named in connection with their par- 
ticipation in its brilliant and thrilling enjoyments. — 
Not a spec obscured the horizon, and the softness 
and splendor of the atmosphere which seemed to 
have been given by a benihcent Providence as an 
approval of the pious, filial duty we w^ere paying to 
the memory of our illustriously untitled Ancestors, 
was only equalled by the smiles and the brilliancy 
of the thousand charming daughters of the Cape, 
and their friends from abroad, who on this occasion 
so delightfully participated in the festivities, as our 
pilgrim mothers did in the trials and heroic endur- 
ance of the physically stronger sex. 

We hail this as a new and interesting element in 
our public celebrations, and as restoring to woman 
her equal rights to enjoy as well as to svffer with 
man. It was most happily and felicitously alluded 
to by several of the eloquent speakers during the 
festivities. 

But we must go back to detail. And- where to 
begin or end in the midst of materials to fill a volume, 
of delightful recollections in which all the taste of 
beauty, and the lull ferce of manly energy and liber- 
ality were employed and well employed in adding or- 



30 

nament and zest tothis high moral and intellectual en- 
tertainment ; this charming "femily party," this great 
" Centennial thanksgiving," as it was happily styled 
by the President of the day. We can only say, in 
general terms, that all were happy because each was 
resolved to make others happy. From this time 
forward, we shall be the advocate of union with the 
ladies in all public celebrations as well as in all 
domestic relations. 

The severe storm which preceded the time set 
apart for this festival, but added to its enjoyments 
by the agreeable contrast in the weather and in the 
expectations of the participators of the scene. It 
was like the genial summer that followed the dreary 
November landing of the Fathers at Paomet on the 
end of the Cape, and was as thankfully received. 

The storm of Saturday unavoidably prevented the 
Steamboat Bangor, Capt. Howes, a true Cape Cod- 
man, from making her proposed tri]) on that day ; — 
but the only inconvenience arising from it was that 
the New England Guards with the Brass Band were 
obliged to charter a packet on Saturday, in which 
they arrived from Boston on Sunday, having seen 
pretty severe service in the Bay. This, however, 
did not damp their ardor nor diminish the effect their 
gallant escort gave to the day. They were received 
without salute or ])arade, from a just respect to the 
Sabbath. The like propriety was observed on the 
arrival of the Revenue Cutter Hamilton, Captain 
Sturgis, the same day. The Guards encamped on 
Sunday evening, some distance east of the Meeting 
House, where they held their head quarters during 
their encampment. 

Monday presentcMl a gay and gallant scene. In 
the for(uioon a national salute was exchano;ed be- 
tween the citizens and the Cutter, the old Barnsta- 
ble field piece being used by the former. At four 
o'clock in the afternoon the Steamer Bangor arrived, 
having left Boston at 9 o'clock, A. M., and came 
majestically into the harbor. Salutes were fired 



31 

from the field pieces on shore, and by the Culler in 
the harbor, and were answered from the Boat with 
her gaily crowded decks. The shores and hills and 
wharves were lined with spectators and vehicles that 
gave life to the beautiful picture presented by the 
smooth waters of the bay and harbor, on which rest- 
ed the Steamer, the Cutter, and other craft, with 
their flags flying and waking the echoes with the 
smart reports of the cannon. What a contrast with 
the landing on the 11th of November, 1620, in 
Provincetown harbor ! The moment the Steamer 
dropped her anchor. Captain Sturgis, with the admi- 
rable promptness and precision which distinguished 
all his movements on this occasion, received Gov- 
ernor Everett and two of his Aids Avith other gentle- 
men, in his gig, and landed them at the wharf, which 
was within a short distance from the anchorage. — 
Chief Justice Shaw and other guests, with the Boston 
Committee of Arrangements soon followed. The 
disembarking was speedily accomplished in large flat 
bottomed boats, provided by the Committee for this 
service, which was most conveniently performed. — 
There was a cordial greeting and hearty shaking of 
hands on the landing, between the returning emi- 
grants and the permanent natives of the soil, and 
there were also hundreds there, of the former, who 
had anticipated the passage in the Steamboat, and 
who had come from almost every section of the 
Union, to mingle congratulations upon their mother 
soil. 

The Governor was conveyed to the residence of 
Captain Daniel C. Bacon ; Judge Shaw to that of 
David Crocker, Esq. ; and every door was opened 
in hospitable welcome to the ' coming guests.' The 
Cape Cod ladies, God bless them ! had not only de- 
voted all the taste and assiduity required in decorating 
the Hall, and in adding elegance and ornament to the 
general preparations for the day and evening, but the 
neat and quiet housewifery, in which they cannot be 
surpassed, was employed, in liberal profusion, in 



32 

providing for the strangers the comforts of home, 
which they so well knew how to dispense. 

In the evening of Monday, the Brass Band gave 
some of their most spirited touches, upon Meeting 
House Hill, where the Parish Company was trained, 
preparatory to their march for Lexington, on the 
iirst news that British musquets had drawn American 
blood. 

Tuesday morning, the day (which opened glori- 
ously and continued benignly to the last ray of sun- 
light, followed by a night as lovely as ever smiled 
on earth) was signalled by a grand salute and the 
ringing of the village bells; and then the great gath- 
ering began. Never were the quiet streets and fields 
of Barnstable so densely populated. It was a living, 
moving mass, as if Boston Common on a great gala 
day had been dropped down among us ; but the 
scene and the associations, as well as the admirable 
order and propriety of the great assemblage, made 
up, we must be allowed to say, a more attractive 
and morally sublime picture. 

The arrangements lor the celebration were perfect 
and ample in all their parts. The Dining Pavilion, was 
on the plan of ihe great Pavilion on Boston Common 
in 1835, u])on which it was an improvement incon- 
venience. It was erected under the superintendance 
of Capt. Zcnas D. Basset, to whom great credit is 
due for the perfect manner in which every part of it 
was arranged. To his care in its erection the com- 
pany were indebted, that all the arrangements for 
the day were not frustrated by the destruction of the 
Pavilion in the terrible gale of Friday night, 
which prostrated fences and buildings all around it. 
It was almost marvellous that the vast roof was not 
lifted by the fury of the storm, and scattered to the 
four winds. Some injury was done to the canvass, 
but it was readily repaired on Monday, after the 
storm, toward which, and its decorations by National 
Hags and mottoes, Captain Sturgis of the Cutter, 
(whom we also claim as a genuine Cape Codder) 

4 



most essentially contributed, with the volunteer aid 
of his gallant crew of seamen. To these last are 
due an honorable mention for their volunteer service 
in keeping night watch at the Pavilion, and in per- 
forming, in fact, the whole police service of the day. 

Can stronger proof be given of the self respect 
which preserved universal decorum among the con- 
gregated thousands, than that this little body of sea- 
men were the only semblance of a police or guard 
employed to keep order. And yet not an impropri- 
ety or an act of rudeness occurred that can be re- 
membered. But the fact is, the ladies were the real 
police, and to their presence is mainly to be attribut- 
ed the admirable propriety and decorum of the fes- 
tival. 

The Dining Pavilion covered an area on a well 
selected spot, west of the Court House, of 130 feet 
square, containing tables with single seats, arranged 
in eight sections in a circular form, so that all the 
occupants were seated fronting the platform. The 
pillars were wreathed with flags, which also encir- 
cled the railings of the platform for the officers and 
guests, and the Orchestra raised in the centre for the 
Band. Mottoes were hung around the sides bearing 
the names of Washington, Franklin, Adams, Warren, 
Hancock, Jefferson, Lafayette, Kosciusco, &c., to 
which should have been added the names of some of 
the Pilgrims who first landed on Cape Cod. The 
names of the thirteen Cape towns were also conspic- 
uous, with the mottoes, ' Our Country and our Con- 
stitution, — ' What our Fathers achieved may their 
sons ever protect.'' 

At 9 o'clock the masculine procession began to be 
formed at the Old Court House, in the form desig- 
nated in the orders of the day, and proceeded in an 
extended line, under escort of the New England 
Guards, Captain G. T. Bigelow, through the main 
Street to the Meeting House, which however, was 
much better occupied by the ladies, except a few 
reserved seats. Temporary wings were erected on 



34 

each side, wliicli accommodated some hundreds, be- 
sides the entire mass ^condensed inside, while thou- 
sands covered the hills and streets, who could find 
no entrance. This difficulty it was impossible to 
avoid as no building could hold the assembly, and the 
Pavilion could not be used for this purpose. We 
believe it was the universal observation of all stran- 
ers that the deportment of this crowded auditory, 
was a model in propriety for similar assemblages. 

The order of exercises in the Meeting House, 
were a voluntary by the Band, introductory prayer, 
by Rev. George VV. Woodward, pastor of the Par- 
ish ; Mrs. Heman's Ode on the Landing of the Pil- 
grim Fathers, by the Choir ; Prayer by Rev. Freeman 
Parker of Wiscasset, Me., a native of Barnstable ; 
and an old version from a veritable edition of 1609, 
of Sternhold &: Plopkins, as used by the Pilgrims, to 
the tune of Coronation. 

" Attend my people to iny lawe, 

and to my words incline; 
My mouth shall speak strange parables, 

and sentences diuinc." 

It was proposed that a venerable gentleman should 
deacon o1^' the Hymn in old style, but it was found 
it would occupy too much time in this part of the 
services. 

The Discourse followed, by Professor John Gor- 
HAM Palfrey, (who is of Cape Cod descent by the 
maternal side) and occupied two hours and a half. — 
Yet though time was precious, not one who heard 
this admirable address regretted a moment spent in 
listening to its attractive and curious details, and its 
rich and beautiful passages of pure eloquence. It 
will form one of the richest fragments of historical 
collections growing out of these memorable occa- 
sions, on which the living have assembled to brush 
the dust from oil" the graves of their Ancestors, and 
revive pious, filial recollections of their great and 
good example. 



35 

The Committee have requested a copy for publi- 
cation, and Yve trust that otiiers will be able to par- 
ticipate in the pleasure those enjoyed who listened 
to this agreeable and eloquent discourse. 

From the Meeting House the procession of ladies 
and gentlemen moved, under escort, to the Pavilion. 
The arrangements, by dividing olf sections corres- 
ponding to the divisions of the tables, were perfect, 
and this great " family party" of just 1458 persons, 
were all quietly and comfortably seated, on arriving 
at the Pavilion, in less than iiiteen minutes. The 
Chief Marshal, Henry Crocker, Esq., and his 
Assistants, performed their parts ^vith the precision 
of thorough drill officers, but they owe as much to 
the kind and polite disposition with Yvhich they were 
seconded by the company, as to their own skill, 
which was ample, for this usually most difficult ser- 
vice. Not a vehicle nor an individual interfered ^vith 
the procession in its whole route. 

When the comjiany were all seated, the whole 
presented a magnihcent picture. The ladies, about 
equally interspersed among the gentlemen, sat uncov- 
ered in all their brilliancy and beauty, forming a 
charming relief to the stiff appearance of an indis- 
criminate mass of broadcloth coats, which usually 
make up these public festivals. With the minute 
attention to every item that marked the accommoda- 
tions for the day, hooks were provided under the 
seats, where the ladies' bonnets ^vere securely dis- 
posed. There was ample room in the seats and 
sufficient space in the passages for the trig and 
attentive waiters in their white jackets, to serve the 
tables. 

The set out was beautiful, all the service being of 
white china on white cloths, which made a most 
agreeably uniform show, the tables gradually descend- 
ing from behind toward the platform in the centre, 
parallel with whicli were two seats in an extended 
line occupied by the Guards, who had a command- 
ing view of the whole, and formed an imposing mar- 
tial back ground to fill up the picture. 



36 

Mr. Wiighi, of the Tontine House, Boston, who 
catered for the occasion, had made most excellent 
and ample provision, and performed his service even 
beyond the expectations of the Committee, and to 
the entire satisfaction of the guests and company. — 
There was not an item of this part of the arrange- 
ment in which there was an omission or a failure. — 
We certainly never saw a public dinner better, if so 
well served up and attended, and can confidently 
recommend Mr. Wright for any like festival. 

Grace was invoked by the Rev. Mr. Parker, and 
thanks returned by the Rev. Mr. Woodward. The 
President of the day. Judge Marston opened the 
intellectual dessert by an apt and appropriate welcome 
to the emigrants, of which the following is a copy: — 

Friends and Fellow Cltize^is : 

I presume that in the heart of every one who hears 
me, 1 shall meet with an affirmative response, when 
I say that we are here under the most pleasant and 
auspicious circumstances. 

We are assembled to celebrate the birthday, if I 
may so speak, of this ancient town of Barnstable, 
and to hold a Cape Cod Jubilee. 

This is called an ancient town, and yet it is but 
tivo hundred ijcars old — a short period in the long 
lapse of time. But in this brief space oi tic o hnnd reel 
years, what wonderful changes have been wrought 
in this our New^ World. I speak not of the popu- 
lous and busy cities and villages that have arisen as 
if by magic, but the whole land has become " as the 
garden of the Lord" — pleasant to look upon — de- 
lightful to dwell in — the happy abode of a free and 
prosperous people. How much has been done by 
the patriotism and enterprise of the natives of Cape 
Cod and their descendants, in bringing about this 
result, I forbear to say ; but it has been partly shown 
in the interesting and eloquent oration, to which we 
have this day listened. 



31 

In this period of tivo himdred years how numerous 
have become the descendants of the people of this 
town and County, and how widely scattered over 
the face of our land and the world. They are found 
in every country and in every clime, in every city 
and on every sea, in every State of our Union, and, 
I might almost say, in every town. Under these 
circumstances the happy thought arose, to invite the 
sons and daughters of Cape Cod home, to hold a 
great family festival — a New England Centennial 
Thanksgiving — to interchange friendly and social 
congratulations — to commune upon the past, and to 
contemplate and commemorate the virtues, the 
deeds, and the sufferings of our puritan ancestors, 
who pioneered the way to this goodly heritage which 
we now enjoy. How this invitation has been 
responded to, this assemblage shows. And is not 
this a goodly assembly ? Our guests have come from 
the four winds of heaven, and every class and condi- 
tion of persons is here represented. I see around 
me the accomplished scholar and orator, the able 
judge and lawyer, the learned divine, the skilful 
physician, the industrious cultivator of the soil, the 
enterprising and successful merchant, the hardy and 
adventurous seaman, the ingenious and active arti- 
zan and mechanic, and lovely woman. And here 
assembled, we are blessed in the splendor of the day 
and the beauty of the feast. 

To all the sons and daughters of Cape Cod who 
have come, on this joyous occasion, to the parental 
roof, to all our invited guests, to friends and strang- 
ers, to all who have seen fit to honor us by their 
presence at this festival, I say in behalf of those who 
have arranged this celebration, we bid you welcome 
and offer you our warmest congratulations. And 
now having partaken of the bounties of Providence 
from the well spread board, let the swelling heart 
speak out its feelings ; and may the collation of food 
and the libation of wine prove but the precursors to 
'■'■ the feast of reason and the flow of soul." 



38 

The Toast Master, then announced tlie thirteen 
regular toasts, '\\ hich were emphatically responded to. 
Kegwlai* Toasls. 

1. This days'' commemmoration — to link the present to the 
past. If history be philosophy teaching by example, it is a dic- 
tate of wisdom to consult its pages ; and none can be more 
instructive and profitable than the annals of our ancestors. 

2. Tlie contrast — Cape Cod in 1639 — our ancestors fleeing 
from persecution, struggling with want, and surrounded by dan- 
gers. Cape Cod in 1889. Their descendants free and happy, 
in the midst of abundance, and " none to make them afraid." 

3. The memory of the first Settlers — Men and women worthy 
to be the progenitors of a nation of freemen. In their frugaf 
virtues and pious example, they have left to us an inheritance 
richer than wealth, and nobler than title. 

4. Our Fathers ! Where are they ? Echo answers where ? — 
The orrass withereth and the flower fadeth, but their fair fame, 
their pious patriotism, their long suff'ering, their public and pri- 
vate virtues, are embalmed in the memory of their posterity. 

5. Plymouth and Blassachusctts Colonies. The first planted 
in the snows of December, the second in the scorching heat of 
June. Both united under one governor in 1(592, and ever since 
forming a flourishing and happy Commonwealth. In the eloquent 
language of the present Cliief Magistrate, "Here on the spot 
where New England begun to be, we come in our prosperity to 
remember their trials, and to learn of our pilgrim lathers a deep 
and lasting lesson of virtue, enterprise, patience, zeal and faith !" 

This toast was replied to by Governor Everett, 
as follows, who cliarmed his hearers for more than 
half an hour, in the happiest strain of his ever ready 
and effective eloquence. He was never happier in 
his address on any public occasion : — 

Mr. President — I rise in obedience to your call, to 
respond to tlie toast aa hich has just been pro])osed. 
1 feel gratified, that any language of mine has been 
thought appropriate, to express the feelings, which 
I am sure are common to us all on this occasion ; — 
feelings of veneration and gratitude for our ' Pilgrim 
Fathers.' 1 am sure also, that I express the senti- 
ments of every individual of this immense com])any, 
when I include, in this tribute of respect and affec- 
tion, those excellent, noble hearted women, the 



39 

Mothers of Plymouth and Massachusetts, who bore 
their full share of the hardships and afflictions of the 
first settlements. The sphere of woman is domestic. 
She is not commonly called to the performance of 
the duties, which figure on the page of history. But 
who can doubt, that, amidst the wants and dangers 
of the period w^e celebrate ; — under the pressure of 
that extremity of fortune to which the colonists 
were reduced, — that grim and gaunt poverty which 
more than once, like one of the famished wolves of 
the wilderness around them, forced its Avay over the 
threshold of the pilgrims, — the task which devolved 
upon mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, — the 
task of making a destitute home comfortable, and a 
weary life, tolerable, — the task of stilling the impa- 
tience of children craving food which could not be 
obtained for them, — the task of ministering to the 
sick and performing the last offices to the departed, 
— was to the full as severe, as that of the men who 
bore the hardships of the field and faced the savage 
foe? 

I feel most happy, Sir, in being present at this 
celebration. I cannot for myself, it is true, lay claim 
to a direct relationship with any part of the Old Col- 
ony. My fathers from the first settlement of Massa- 
chusetts proper, rest beneath the soil which they 
tilled for six generations, in the village of Dedham 
in the nearest adjoining County. But you will not 
wonder, if, on this occasion, and especially before a 
company graced by so large an attendance of the 
ladies of the Old Colony, I am disposed to boast, 
that a portion of that pure Cape blood, which man- 
tles in so many fair cheeks around this board, flows 
in the veins of my better half at home. If I may 
presume to go a step farther, Mr. President, and, as 
you have happily called this a family party, be in- 
dulged in another allusion to family matters, I would 
add, that I have four hopeful scions partaking of a 
true, honored, Barnstable stock, of which I hope you 
will not think the worse for being engrafted upon a 



40 

sound though humble Massachusetts trunk. I sliall 
feel most happj, Sir,— proud as they will be of their 
Old Colony lineage,— if they shall grow up to the 
possession of the sterling virtues, which have in all 
times characterized its sons, and the maidenly charms 
and matronly graces of its daughters. Sure I am, 
that if, on the great voyage of life, my children shall 
take their departure from the principles of Plymouth 
rock, and steer by the good old Cape Cod compass 
of industry and probity, come fair weather or foul, 
they will lay a straight course, and if I may without 
impropriety end the figure as I have begun, come to 
anchorage at last at the Cape of Good Hope in the 
Divine Mercy. 

But, Sir, I did not need associations of this kind 
(though I value them,) to give me a deep sympathy 
with the feelings awakened by this occasion. I regard 
all these historical celebrations as highly interesting 
and important. I have attended many of them ; — 
and always with the highest satisfaction. I love to 
see the dust swept from the graves of our fathers. — 
I love to see the talent and patriotic feeling of the 
gifted of this generation employed, as we have seen 
them to day, like Old Mortality in the romance, in 
cutting broader and deeper the inscriptions on their 
moss-grown monuments. I do not know how the 
faculty of looking before and after, which belongs to 
us as iational beings, can be better employed, than 
calling up to grateful recollection, on appropriate 
occasions, the toils and sufferings of those, to whom 
as a community, we owe our existence. It is a pious 
office to the past ; — and who is there that can still 
the i\md hope within him, that when the sun has 
again for a hundred times performed the mighty 
circuit of the heavens, and each of us in this throng- 
ed and happy assemblage, — from that aged head 
whose silvery honors demand our veneration, [Dr. 
Thacher of Plymouth was seated near the Chair] to 
the most youthful of the blooming and heaven-light- 
ed countenances before me, — shall alike have been 



41 

for years laid low, like a weary infant at even-song 
in its mother's lap, — Our children's children, in re- 
turning to renew these pious rites at the close of 
another century, will retrace with pleasure the record 
of these proceedings, and feel grateful to us that we 
have this day lighted the torch of memory at the 
shrine of our Fathers ? 

In the anticipation of that day, Sir, and in the 
desire of transmitting a slight but not unpleasing 
memorial of this, I have taken steps to have a copy 
of the Original Campact, Charter, and Laws of the 
Old Colony, recently published by order of the Leg- 
islature, together with a copy of the splendid chart 
of the noble harbor where the Mayflower first came 
to anchor, lately executed by the engineers of the 
United States, suitably prepared for preservation ; — 
in the hope that they will be contemplated with 
some interest by those who shall be gathered on this 
spot, at the third Centennial Celebration. 1 meant 
to have them in readiness to offer to you. Sir, and 
through you to my fellow-citizens of Barnstable, at 
this time ; but I have been disappointed by circum- 
stances beyond my control. As they will not be 
wanted till the 3d of September 1939, I suppose 
there is no great hurry. We will have them ready 
before the end of the Century. 

The sentiments. Sir, to which I have been invited 
to respond, associates in one retrospect the sufferings 
of the fathers both of the Old Colony and Massa- 
chusetts, the former in the depth of winter — the 
latter under the scorching heats of June. All sea- 
sons, I fear, are inclement, all seas boisterous, all 
shores inhospitable to the afflicted and heart-stricken 
fugitive. It is sad indeed to reflect, that, of that 
portion of Governor Winthrop's party, who passed 
the summer of 1630, in tents on one of the heights 
of Charlestown, and of the Plymouth settlers who 
were wretchedly housed upon the hill which over- 
looks the harbor of that place, in the dreadful winter 
of 1620, the larger half, in the course of the first six 



42 

months, sank beneath their sufferings. It would be 
out of place to dilate, on this occasion, upon the 
hardships of the founders of Massachusetts; but I 
think it can be truly said that from the 12th of July 
1620, when the first settlers of the Old Colony pas- 
sed the night in tears, and in prayer at Delft Haven 
in Holland, with Mr. Robinson and the brethren who 
were to remain at Leyden, down to the ripening of 
the first crop in 1621, they endured as great an 
amount of suffering, bodily and mental, as was ever 
borne in an equal space of time, by the same number 
of men, women and children. I say nothing now of 
the hardships previously endured in the persecution, 
which drove them from their native land. In fact, 
sir, though we live upon the soil where our fathers 
landed ; though we can trace them as it w^ere every 
mile of the way along the shore ; though we can 
look out upon the w aves which bore the Mayflower 
to these uttermost ends of the earth, (as they were 
then regarded,) Ave see not, we know not, we com- 
prehend not the dreary land and the pathless sea, 
whose united ])erils struck terror into their hearts. 
Do you think, Sir, as we repose beneath this splen- 
did pavilion, adorned by the hand of taste, blooming 
with the festive garlands, wreathed with the stars 
and stripes of this great republic, resounding Avith 
strains of heart-stirring music, that, merely because 
it stands upon the soil of Barnstable, we form any 
idea of the spot as it appeared to Captain Miles 
Standish and his Companions, on the 15th or 16th 
of November 1620? Oh, no. Sir. Let us go up 
for a moment, in imagination, to yonder hill, which 
overlooks the village and the bay, and suppose our- 
selves standing there, on some bleak ungenial morn- 
ing, in the middle of November of that year. The 
coast is fringed with ice. Dreary forest interspers- 
ed with sandy tracts fill the back ground. Nothing 
of humanity quickens on the spot, save a few roam- 
ing savages, w^ho, ill-j)rovided with what even they 
deem the necessaries of life, are diefeins: with their 



fingers a scanty repast out of the frozen sands. No 
friendly light-houses had as yet hung up their cres- 
sets upon your headlands ; no brave pilot-boat was 
hovering like a sea-bird on the tops of the waves, 
beyond the Cape, to guide the shattered bark to its 
harbor ; no charts and soundings made the secret 
pathways of the deep as plain as a gravelled road 
through a lawn, no comfortable dwellings along the 
line of the shore and in your well-inhabited streets 
spoke a welcome to the pilgrim ; no steeple poured 
the music of Sabbath morn into the ear of the fugi- 
tive for conscience's sake. Primeval wildness and 
native desolation brood over sea and land ; and from 
the 9th of November, when, alter a most calamitous 
voyage, the Mayflower first came to anchor in Prov- 
incetown harbor to the end of December, the entire 
male portion of the company was occupied, for the 
greater part of every day, and often by night as well 
as day, in exploring the coast and seeking a place of 
rest. Amidst perils from the savages, from the 
unknown shore, and the elements, which it makes 
one's heart bleed to think upon. 

But this dreary waste, which we thus contemplate 
in imagination and which they traversed in sad real- 
ity, is a chosen land. It is a theatre upon which an 
all-glorious drama is to be enacted. On this frozen 
soil — driven from the ivy-grown churches of their 
mother land — escaped alas from those loathsome 
prisons, which were so touchingly described by the 
eloquent orator of the day — the meek fathers of a 
pure church will lay the spiritual basements of their 
temple. Here are the everlasting rocks of liberty, 
they will establish the foundation of a free State. — 
Beneath this ungenial wintry sky, principles of social 
right, institutions of civil government shall germinate, 
in which what seemed the Utopian dreams of vision- 
ary sages, are to be more than realized. 

But let us contemplate for a moment, the instru- 
ments, selected by Providence, for this political and 
moral creation. However unpromising the field of 



44 

action, the agents must correspond with the excel- 
lence of the work. The time is truly auspicious. — 
England is well supplied with all the materials of a 
generous enterprise. She is in the full affluence of 
her wealth and character. The age of Elizabeth 
has passed, and has garnered up its treasures. The 
age of the Commonwealth, silent and unsuspected, 
is ripening toward its harvest of great men. The 
Burleighs and Cecils have sounded the depths of 
statesmanship ; the Drakes and Raleighs have run 
the whole round of chivalry and adventure ; the 
Cokes and Bacons are spreading the light of their 
master minds through the entire universe of philos- 
ophy and law. Out of a generation of which men 
like these are the guides and lights, it cannot be 
difficult to select the leaders of any lofty undertak- 
ing ; and through their influence to secure to it the 
protection of royalty. But, alas for New-England ; 
No, Sir, happily for New-England, Providence 
works not with human instruments. Not many wise 
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many 
noble are called. The stars of human greatness, 
that glitter in a court, are not destined to rise on the 
lowering horizon of the despised Colony. The feeble 
company of pilgrims is not to be marshalled by 
gartered statesmen nor mitred prelates. Fleets will 
not be despatched to convoy the little band, nor 
armies to protect it. Had there been honors to be 
worn, or pleasures to be enjoyed, or plunder to be 
grasped, hungry courtiers, mid-summer friends, god- 
less adventurers would have eaten out the heart of 
the enterprise. Silken Buckinghams and Somersets 
would have blasted it with their patronage. But 
safe amidst their unenvied perils, strong in their in- 
offensive weakness, rich in their untempting poverty, 
the patient fugitives are permitted to pursue unmo- 
lested the thorny paths of tribulation; and landed 
at last on the unfriendly shore, the hosts of God, in 
in the frozen mail of December, encamp around the 
dwellings of the just : — 



45 



Stern famine guards the solitary coast, 
And winter barricades the realms of frost. 

While Bacon is attuning the sweetest strains of 
his honied eloquence, to sooth the dull ear of a 
crowned pedant ; and his great rival, only less obse- 
quious, is on his knees to deprecate the royal dis- 
pleasure, the future founders of the new republic be- 
yond the sea are training up for their illustrious mis- 
sion, in obscurity, hardship, and weary exile in a 
foreign land. 



And now, — for the fullness of time is come, — let 
us go up once more in imagination to yonder hill, 
and look out upon the November scene. That sin- 
gle dark spec, just discernable through the perspec- 
tive glass, on the waste of waters, is the fated vessel. 
The storm moans through her tattered canvass, as 
she creeps, almost sinking to her anchorage in Prov- 
incetown harbor ; and there she lies with all her 
treasures, not of silver and gold, (for of these she has 
none,) but of courage, of patience, of zeal, of high 
spiritual daring. So often as 1 dwell in imagination 
on this scene ; when 1 consider the condition of the 
Mayflower, utterly incapable as she was of living 
through another gale ; when I survey the terrible 
front presented by our coast to the navigator, who, 
unacquainted with its channels and roadsteads, should 
approach it, in the stormy season, I dare not call it 
a mere piece of good fortune, that the general north 
and south wall of the shore of New-England should 
be broken by this extraordinary projection ^f the 
Cape, running out into the ocean of a hundred miles, 
as if on purpose to receive and encircle the precious 
vessel. As I now see her, freighted with the desti- 
nies of a continent, barely escaped from the perils of 
the deep, approaching the shore precisely where the 
broad sweep of this most remarkable headland pre- 
sents almost the only point at which for hundreds of 
miles she could with any ease have made a harbor, 
and this perhaps the very best on the sea-board, I 
feel my spirit raised above the sphere of mere natural 



46 

I sec the mountains of New-England 
rising from their rocky thrones. They rush forward 
into the ocean, settling down as they advance ; and 
there they range themselves a mighty bulwark around 
the heaven directed vessel. Yes, the everlasting 
God himself stretches out the arm of his mercy and 
his power in substantial manifestation, and gathers 
the meek company of his worshippers as in the hol- 
low of his hand. 

Within that poor tempest-tossed vessel, there lay, 
on the 11th of November, 1620, a moral treasure, 
of value wholly inappreciable ; faintly conceived of 
by us, its immediate inheritors, after two hundred 
years possession ; — principles of social and moral 
growth and improvement, which for ages to come 
will not be developed in all their virtue and efficacy. 
There lay scarcely organized the elements of a pure 
democracy. On that day the first written constitu- 
tion of popular government was drawn up and signed 
by the people assembled in Convention for that pur- 
pose. Cycles of human history may pass, before 
events of equal importance to humanity shall recur. 
And what a disaster to the general cause of freedom 
and truth, had this vessel and all she contained been 
lost ! Embattled navies might contend and go down. 
Foundered galleons might pave the green floors of 
the ocean with ingots of silver and gold, and the next 
generation be neither the weaker nor the poorer for 
the loss. But if this weather-beaten Mayflower 
and her company had sunk beneath the waves, which 
so often seemed o})ening to engulph her, (decisive as 
the event would probably have been, for an indefinite 
period, of all further attempts to colonize America) 
there would have been inflicted a wound, which 
might never have been healed, on the great cause of 
Conscience, Free Government and Truth. 

I meant, sir, to have said a few words on the prin- 
ciples and institutions of the fathers of the Old Col- 
ony, as the direct sources of those blessings which 
we have inherited from them. I meant to have 



47 

spoken briefly of the two great pillars on which they 
rested the temple of liberty ; — freedom in the church- 
es, as opposed to the domination of a hierarchy ; and 
freedom in the state, founded on the absence of all 
hereditary privileges, on a recurrence to the popular 
will by frequent elections, and on a system of public 
education in free schools. This last object early 
received the attention of the government of Plymouth 
Colony. Besides requiring the towns to support 
schools, the proceeds of the public fisheries were 
appropriated to their encouragement. But I leave 
these fruitful topics to gentlemen around me, who 
are abundantly able to do them justice. There is one 
point only which can never be wholly overlooked, in 
speaking of the pilgrims, 1 mean their faults. They 
were men, and of course had faults, upon which those 
who like the occupation may descant. I do not, and 
I am sure there is no one who does. This counsel 
only 1 would give to any one, who takes in hand to 
rebuke the errors of the Fathers of Plymouth or 
Massachusetts, viz : to settle with himself at the 
outset, considering what human nature at the best is, 
whether precisely the kind of virtues, the unyield- 
ing, dauntless, all-enduring, all-daring spirit necessa- 
ry to accomplish the great work of founding a new 
state, under every imaginable discouragement, could 
have subsisted without something of that austerity 
and sternness, of which it must be admitted there are 
lamentable memorials in the pilgrim annals. 

Besides, Sir, our poor fathers were pestered with 
troubles, and had to provide against evils, of which 
in these latter days we know nothing. It seems that 
it was thought necessary, in the early legislation of 
the Colony, to enact that " no man shall strike his 
wife, nor any woman her husband, on penalty of such 
fine, not exceeding ten pounds for one offence, or 
such suitable corporeal punishment as the Court may 
direct." I see by the smiling faces of both sexes 
around me, that there is no occasion at the present 
day in the Old Colony for any such legislation as 



48 

this ; that, law or no law, that man is held to be a 
villian, on Cape Cod, who raises his hand toward a 
woman except in kindness ; — and that, in return, no 
man is in danger of being smitten by the gentler sex, 
with any other weapon, than the bright glance which 
heals while it wounds. Again, the learned and elo- 
quent orator of the day has reminded us that it was 
deemed necessary to provide, among the first acts of 
legislation in the Old Colony, that " if now or here- 
after any were elected to the olKce of Gov ernor, and 
would not stand to the election, nor hold and execute 
the office for his year, that then he should be amerc- 
ed in twenty pounds sterling fine." All trouble up- 
on this score, I believe has disappeared ; at least 
since the happy period when the Old Colony was 
united with Massachusetts. But I cannot answer 
for it, Mr. President, that this will always be the 
case, if things continue to be managed, as they have 
been to-day, — I must candidly tell you, that, when 
I found myself moving along to this pavilion in soli- 
tary grandeur, excluded from that part of the pro- 
cession which was honored by the presence of the 
ladies, and when I perceived that my position here, 
on this elevated platform, was to be one of like pri- 
vation, (to say nothing of the natural misgivings 
which may well come over one, who finds himself 
directly in front of his honor the Chief Justice and 
the Sheriff) I say. Sir, \v hen I found that these were 
the consequences of official dignity, I had some 
thoughts of taking advantage of the Old Colony law, 
and paying my fine. 

A single sentence more. Sir, and in the serious 
strain which perhaps better becomes the occasion. — 
In all that concerns the history and character of the 
Old Colony, the people of Barnstable have a peculiar 
interest. Your shore was pressed by the feet of the 
Pilgrims before they rested on Plymouth rock. — 
When the good seed raised around the chosen spot 
began to be cast abroad, one of the first handfulls 
fell on your genial soil ; — and from that time to this, 



49 

through two centuries of humble beginnings and rich 
fruits, — of trial and hardship — of success and glory, 
you have grown up a living, leading, intregal part of 
that illustrious "Old Colony" with whose annals 
commences, if I may so express myself, the New 
Testament of civil and religious liberty. 

With your permission I would say, in taking my 
seat, — 

The Cape ; God bless her ! The sons and daughters of 
Barnstable are among the fairest jewels in her crown of honor : 
wherever dispersed, there is not one of them who will not ex- 
claim, 

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, 
My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee. 

6. The love of our Native soil. — Always strongest where 
nature has been least bountiful. If any wonder why we love 
the barren sands of old Cape Cod, tell them that in 1623 it was 
the unanimous resolve of the first settlers in these parts "that 
seeing by God's providence this place fell to their lot, they 
would not leave it, nor languish after other places, though they 
had discovered more rivers and more fertile places than where 
they were." 

7. Paomet, (noio Provincetown) — The birth place of popu- 
lar constitutional liberty ; where the first written compact for a 
government of "just and equal laws" was made on board the 
May Flower, Nov. 11, 1620 — by John Carver, and forty others, 
" in the name of God" and for " the general good." 

8. Cape Cod. — Though she has few lawsuits of her own, she 
is justly proud of having furnished the distinguished head of the 
Judiciary of the Commonwealth, to settle the disputes of her 
neighbors. 

This toast was responded to, in an impressive 
and deeply affecting manner, by Chief Justice Shaw, 
who recurred to his early associations as a Barnstable 
boy, with heartfelt emotion, of which the following 
is a sketch : — 

Mr. President. — It would be mere affectation in 
me, not to understand at once, that the sentiment 
now expressed, alludes to myself. Such an expres- 
sion of kind and respectful remembrance, by such an 
assembly as the present, on an occasion so full of 
deep and solemn interest, fills my heart with unmin- 



50 

gled j^ratitude, and I can do little more than to ex- 
press to the company my heartfelt thanks. 

To be held in cherished remembrance by my earli- 
est associates, the friends of my beloved parents, the 
companions of my infancy and childhood, by those 
who cherish an ardent love for my dear native land, 
whatever may be their pursuits, or whatever their 
residence — this indeed affords me a gratification, 
which I would not willingly exchange, for any 
advantage which rank or distinction could confer. 

Sir, you have been pleased to allude to the emin- 
ent judicial office which I hold. I have indeed, been 
honored by my native state, greatly beyond any 
merits which I can claim. I have been entrusted 
with an office of great responsibility, dignity and 
honor. 1 can only express the earnest and sincere 
wish, that I had the ability to discharge the duties 
of this office in a more worthy and acceptable man- 
ner. But, Mr. President one thing I can say, in all 
truth and sincerity, — that whatever of honors and 
distinctions my fellow citizens have been pleased, in 
their generosity, to bestow upon me, I can make no 
better use of them — I desire to make no better use 
of them, than to present them hore, on this occasion, 
as a grateful tribute to the land of my birth — to add 
them to the beautiful garland which we are all this 
day contributing to make up, to deck the venerable 
brow of our beloved native town. 

Here, on such an occasion, all minor distinctions 
of occupation, of condition, of fortune and residence, 
vanish before the one dec]), absorbing sentiment 
which binds our hearts indissolubly to our native soil. 
Here the merchruit may rejoice to come, leaving be- 
hind him, for a time, his ledgers and accounts, leaving 
his ships, his stocks, and his merchandize to take 
care of themselves ; — the clergyman, in perfect con- 
sistency with his holiest duti(!s, may for a short time 
leave his pulpit, and liis flock ; — the farmer may well 
leave his fields and his marshes ; — the seaman his 
vessel — the shoresman his fish-flakes — and judges 



61 

and lawyers are glad to tear themselves away from 
the wrangles of the courts, and the turmoil of judicial 
controversy, to indulge together, for a few brief 
hours, in the cherished recollections of by-gone years; 
recollections always dear, though often sad. But 
joyful or sad, prompted by the better principles of 
our nature, and deepened by a common sympathy, 
we know and feel that they bind thousands of hearts, 
in one common feeling of mutual attachment. 

And why should it not be so ? — Indeed, it is good 
for us to be here — to be here upon such an occasion, 
and to yield to the thoughts and feelings which come 
thronging upon us. Sir, there's pleasure and profit 
in it — there's wisdom, plilosophy, and religion in it. 
Was not this the home of our infancy and childhood ? 
Here we first felt the dear delights of parental love — 
here the first thoughts and feelings of our social and 
intellectual nature were enkindled and developed — 
here we first felt the pleasures of friendship and the 
joys of social existence, when every feeling carried 
with it the purity, the ardor, and the joyous freshness 
of youth. 

Why sir, every house, every field, every grove has 
its history, and brings back a clustering throng of 
recollections. Almost within sight of the place 
where we are, still stands a modest spire, marking 
the spot, where a beloved father stood to minister 
the holy word of divine truth, and hope, and salva- 
vation, to a numerous, beloved and attached people, 
for almost half a century. Pious, pure, simple- 
hearted, devoted to, and beloved by his people, never 
shall I cease to venerate his memory, or to love 
those who knew and loved him. I speak in the 
presence of some who knew him, and of many more, 
who I doubt not were taught to luve and honor his 
memory as one of the earliest lessons of their child- 
hood. But 1 must not dwell on a theme like this; I 
may have gone too far in saying thus much ; though 
in alluding to it, 1 am sure I touch a chord, which 
will vibrate through many a heart. 



52 

Indeed, my friends, every local object is a talis- 
man, which revives its long train of remembered 
joys, or sorrows, amusements and occupations ; the 
school, the wedding, the funeral, the social circle, the 
play-ground, the meeting-house, the burying ground : 
— time would fail me in naming a mere list of the 
thousand objects, which awaken vivid recollections 
of the past, and above all — -more than all, remind 
us of those who participated in our early affections 
and friendships. 

And is it not good thus to be moved sometimes, by 
a noble feeling of generous sympathy and affection ? 
Does it not teach us all, — the merchant, the seaman, 
the farmer, the lawyer, each and all of us, whatever 
our employment, or whatever our success in life, 
that there is something worth living for, beside 
profits and wages, and fees and salaries : — that there 
is something in the joys of memory, — of hope and 
imagination — in our social affections and sympathies 
— in the consciousness of our moral and intellectual 
being, which rises above the ordinary routine of cares 
and labors, whose object is bounded by the acquisi- 
tion of mere worldly goods. May it not even inspire 
a holier thought ? If, as we feel and know, these 
attachments and sympathies so closely connect the 
past with the present, may it not lead us to indulge 
the hope, and to rest on the assurance, that there shall 
be some similar connection between the present and 
the future — that the affections of the soul, so pure 
and perennial, are not destined to have their full 
accomplishment here, and shall not be crushed and 
annihilated by the termination of our earthly exist- 
ence ; but that, surely, there is another and a better 
life. 

But sir, let us not be thought wild or visionary, or 
to depart, too widely, from the spirit and feelings of 
the occasion. Indeed the very spirit of the occasion 
is, to perceive in the persons and objects around us, 
not the mere visible and sensible images, but the 
recollections and feelings which they suggest. Take 



a single instance. Did we not observe, as the pro- 
cession was moving on to day, a long range of sand 
hills skirting the town ? You and I, sir, know it by 
the name of Sandy Neck. And what does it present 
to the eye of the casual observer ? Why a range of 
sterile sand hills, interspersed with a few patches of 
brown woods and swamps, and surrounded by marsh- 
es. Who of us, has not heard the tremendous roar of 
the surf, as its mountain surges lash the long line of 
beach, back of those hills ? But to the eye of a na- 
tive Cape Codman, what does it suggest ? — a barren 
waste of waters, a barrier to his exertions, or a con- 
finement to his sterile soil ? Not at all ; it reminds 
him of the ocean that lies beyond ; — the ocean, with 
all its grand and beautiful associations. He looks 
at it not only as the lield of his fame and of his glory, 
but as the field of his industry and enterprise, of his 
enjoyment and improvement, aye, even of his 
social and intellectual improvement. It connects 
him with all lands—with all that is magnificent in 
nature, or polished in art — with all that is valuable 
in knowledge, refinement and civilization. His 
neighbors are not those only, who live in the next 
town, or state, or kingdom ; — wherever there is 
commerce, there he has neighbors and friends. He 
not only repeats the words of the seaman's song, but 
imbibes its spirit, 

"In every clime we find a port, 

In every port a home." 
But the home of his memory and his affections is 
here ; — to his native land, amidst all his wanderings, 
he looks with a steady eye ; — and whatever acquisi- 
tions of property or pleasure, of hospitality and 
friendship, he finds elsewhere, he regards them all as 
the means of comfort and enjoyment on his return. 
The land and the sea are alike fertile to thoSe who 
have the hardihood, the skill and the enterprise to 
improve them, and the hearts to enjoy them ; — 
and they are alike sterile to the idle, the dissolute 
and the heartless. Indeed, that soil can never 



64 

l)c deemed sterile, which yields a large and steady 
growth of intelligent and enterprising men, and of 
amiable and accomplished women. 

But I am encroaching on precious time, and will 
only propose as a sentiment, 

" Cape Cod — our beloved birtli place — may it long be the 
nursery and the home oftlie social virtues — a place which all her 
sons and daughters, whetlier present or absent, may for centu- 
ries to come, as in centuries past, delight to honor and to love." 

9. The characteristics of the first settlers of Mattacheest* — 
Frugality, enterprise, temperance, and independence — the tools 
with which any able bodied man in this country can get an hon- 
est living off a rock or a sand bank. May they ever be kept 
bright and transmitted from lather to son, to the latest generation. 

10. Banks and Banking. — We wont quarrel about U. S. 
Banks, Ten Million Banks, nor Suffolk Banks, so long as tlie 
great charter of nature secures to us our Clam Banks, Sand 
Banks and Grand Bank ; the only Banks that have stood a run 
of two hundred years and redeemed all their drafts in the same 
solid sjjeeics. 

11. The men of reverend age who liave survived to witnes.s 
this day. They have preserved in their lives and habits, and 
we trust impressed on ours, the simple virtues of the Pilgrims. 
May the rising generation never forget to cherish and imitate 
their example. 

To this toast, a reply was read, by Professor 
Palfrey, on behalf of the venerable octogenarian. Dr. 
Thacher of Plymouth, a native of Barnstable, who 
was present. It was pleasant to see him and many 
other of our venerable sires, who had been active 
sharers in the dangers of the revolutionary struggle, 
])resent on this day, surrounded by the present and 
the rising generation, in their manhood and youth- 
ful promise. Ever cherished be their memories, and 
ever active our respect and veneration for the " rticn 
of reverend age," who shared M'ith us in this honored 
festival ! 



*Now Barnstable. 



55 

Memorandum from Dr. James Thacher, of Plym- 
outh. 

I rejoice that I am permitted once more to visit the place, 
where my pious ancestors for generations past devoted their 
lives to their Creator, and where their remains are deposited. — 
This occasion, so interesting to all, is peculiarly so to me. My 
emotions are truly unutterable. I drew my first breath in this 
ancient town more than 85 years ago, and in this great assem- 
bly I seek in vain for the companions of my childhood and youth. 
With such preparation as the town schools of Barnstable, afford- 
ed, I pur-sued the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. 
Abner Hersey, of this town, a Physician of great celebrity in 
that day, whose circle of practice was limited only by the bounds 
of his county. His eccentricities, and few men had more, are 
forgotten, but the memory of his good and generous qualities, 
will not soon pass away. His donations to the churches of his 
county, and in aid of the Hersey professorship of Anatomy and 
Surgery at Cambridge, evinced his attachment to Religion and 
Science, and entitled him to honorable remembrance. The first 
sound of the revolutionary War interrupted my peaceful pur- 
suits, and with the ardor natural to that age, I joined my coun- 
trymen in arms. Perhaps I need not add that I followed the 
fortunes and shared the hardships of Washington's army until the 
liberties of the country were established. 

An incident of that period which occurred on this spot, as it 
shows the spirit of the times, may be worth relating. My spirit 
is animated by a view of your meeting-house, on Training hill, 
and the recollection that on its summit your patriotic Fathers, 
who composed the Militia of the parish, were arrayed, on the 
day when tidings were received, that the blood of their coun- 
trymen had been shed at Lexington. The company immedi- 
ately marched for the post of danger, and on passing from the 
village, an elderly man, Mr John Annable, came tottering down 
the hill near the Jail, where his house stood, to bid adieu to his 
only son, who was a soldier in the ranks, and not without emo- 
tion, yet with Spartan heroism, he said, " Joseph, my son, if 
you go into battle, behave like a man, or never see my face again 
— God be with you all my friends !•" A distinguished native of 
this town, the late Solicitor General Davis, then a lad, officiated 
as Fifer of the Company on this occasion. Joseph survived 
many years after the Revolutionary War. I proffer my respect- 
ful acknowledgments for the kind attentions which the Commit- 
tee have been pleased to bestow upon me, by their invitation to 
participate in the pleasures of this highly interesting occasion, 
and beg leave to propose as a toast, 

The memory of the puritan founders of the ancient town of 
Barnstable, and their worthy compeers, who, exiled from their 
own land, and subjected to a perilous pilgrimage, achieved for 



56 



posterity a rich inheritance, a land of civil and religious freedom. 
May it ever be honored and sustained by wisdom and justice in 
our rulers, disinterested patriotism and frankness in our citizens, 
and pure religion in our sanctuaries. 

12. Boston and Cape Cod — Often doubled, but never run 
down. The first has furnished the capital, the second the indus- 
try, and botli together have made a strong firm whose mutual 
relations have always been a source of profit and pleasure. May 
succeeding centuries continue to enlarge the stock and increase 
the dividends. 

13. Witchcraft. — AVe pretend to be wiser than our Fathers 
in this matter, and deny its existence, although every man of us 
is in imminent danger of being bewitched to day. But the con- 
jurations and spells we have to encounter are the pleasant words 
and bright eyes of beauty, and the only way we propose to hang 
the Cape Cod witches is — about our necks. 



After the regular toasts, (the 10th and last of 
which were received by three lively cheers) the 
President of the day read the following, to which 
Hon. William Sturgis, of Boston, a native of Barnsta- 
ble, responded in his best manner, and with many 
pleasing allusions to the co-operation of the ladies in 
the festivities of the day : 

The emigrants from Cape Cod. — Found every where on sea 
and land, the busiest among the busy of the "universal Yankee 
nation." A hearty welcome to those who are here to day, and 
good luck and good will to the absent. May none in the wide 
world ever show themselves ashamed to claim Cape Cod, and 
may Cape Cod never have cause to be ashamed to claim them. 

For want of time Mr. Sturgis's remarks were 
somewhat abridged in their delivery, but were in 
substance, as follows : — 

" As Chairman of a Committee of those who orig- 
inated here, but have taken up their abode elsewhere, 
it is my duty, Mr. President, and it would be my 
pleasure, to respond to the toast Just given, did I feel 
sure that I could oflbr a response worthy of the occa- 
sion. But I do not recollect that, in the course of a 
somewhat adventurous life, I have ever undertaken 

7 



57 

a task with less confidence of accomplishing it in a 
satisfactory manner than when 1 attempt to address 
mv Cape Cod friends upon their own soil, a i'ew 
yards only from the spot where I was horn, amidst 
the well remembered scenes of my childhood — with 
the recollections of early days, when here was my 
home, and of the changes since I left this home, pres- 
sing upon me, and calling forth mingled feelings of 
pleasure and pain. But I must not dwell upon these 
feelings : Let me rather proceed at once, in behalf 
of those emigrants who have the good fortune to be 
present upon this occasion, to tender our warmest 
thanks for the frank and cordial welcome you 
have given us, and to assure you. Sir, that we recip- 
rocate with heartfelt sincerity, your friendly wishes, 
and kind expressions of good will. 

Were proof needful to support the assertion in 
your toast, that " Emigrants from Cape Cod are 
found every where," I would offer testimony founded 
upon personal observation. In early life it was my 
lot to visit every quarter of the Globe, and some of 
its remotest regions. Wherever I went I met those 
who claimed their origin here. They are literally 
" on every sea and in every land, the busiest among 
the busy." In truth, Sir, I know not the spot, ever 
w^hitened by the sails of commerce, that has not been 
visited by the intrepid sons of Cape Cod, nor do I 
know the honorable and useful pursuits in which 
they have not successfully engaged. 

From every quarter we have come. Sir, at your 
summons to visit once more the homes of our fathers; 
to renew the associations of early life, and to unite 
with our friends here in a suitable observance of this 
day, so interesting to every true-hearted native of 
Cape Cod. We bring w^ith us, not only the feelings, 
implanted in every human bosom, of attachment to 
the place of our birth — where the days of childhood 
were passed — but many of us come with this feeling 
deepened and strengthened by experience, w^hich 
has taught us to appreciate the advantages we have 



58 

derived from, and made us sensible how much we 
are indebted lor success in life, to the circumstances 
of having been born, and brought up, in this favored 
region. 

I call it a " favored region." Should any one cast 
a look of incredulity upon our parched hills and sandy 
shores, I would tell him wc boast not of the rich pio- 
ductions of a bounteous soil, but of something better, 

for 

" Man is the nobler growth our realm supplies." 

I would ask him to follow the steps of the distin- 
guished Orator of the day, (no easy task. Sir, in the 
paths of learning and eloquence) to go where he has 
lately been, from one extremity of the Cape to the 
other — see the flourishing appearance that every 
where meets the eye, and the evidences of prosperity 
that are every where visible — and then I would 
challenge him to ])oint out any other place under the 
broad canopy o( Heaven, with an extent of country, 
and a population equal to this County, where for two 
hundred years the sound principles, and virtuous 
practices, of the early settlers have been more uni- 
formly adhered to and followed ; where the comforts 
of life are more universally diffused, and the means 
of rational enjoyment more easily secured, by all 
those who have iixed an abode in the land of their 
birth ; and whence a greater number have gone forth 
qualiiied and prepared, to take an active part in the 
busy scenes of life, and make their own way in the 
world by their own vmaided efforts. Sir, this is no 
idle declamation ; I give the challenge in sober earn- 
est, and if any one accepts it, 1 am ready, in the 
language of your profession, to "file a bill of partic- 
ulars," and go into the proof. 

I have alluded to the advantages enjoyed by those 
who originated here. Some of these advantages are 
common to the whole New-England sea-board, oth- 
ers are in a degree peculiar to this section. Were 
this to be a four-days'-mceting instead of four hours, 
I would gladly go fully into this subject ; would enu- 



59 

merate these advantages ; trace them back to causes, 
and forward to effects. I would not do this in the 
spirit of vain boasting, which Americans are, perhaps 
justly, charged with displaying when speaking of 
their country and its institutions ; with those who 
know me, I scarcely need to disclaim so unworthy a 
motive. My object would be to influence the rising 
generation. I would speak to the younger part of 
my auditors, and if possible would address every 
youth — every young man just coming into life, from 
one end of the Cape to the other. To inspire them 
with hope I would call their attention to what may 
this day be witnessed — would tell them that all those 
present whose situation may appear desirable, began 
life but a few years since, with even fewer advan- 
tages than are enjoyed by young men of the present 
day. 1 would refer them to the history and present 
condition of every State of the Union. In nearly all 
of them they may find natives of Cape Cod, filling 
places of trust and honor — distinguished in the learn- 
ed professions as they are called — prominent among 
the most intelligent and skillful of those engaged in 
manufactures and the mechanic arts — standing high 
among enterprising and successful merchants, and 
in the front ranks of industrious and thriving farm- 
ers. But in the greatest numbers they will be found 
engaged in nautical pursuits — there they early took 
the lead and they have kept it. Born, as most of 
them were, within sight of the ocean — many of 
them upon its very borders — they are familiar with 
it from infancy, and thousands embark upon it long 
before the years of boyhood are passed, and there 
they are at home. Look at your fisheries — so valu- 
able to Massachusetts, so important to the whole 
Union — whether to pursue the Mackerel, the Cod 
or even the great Leviathan himself, can you, Sir, 
can any man — tell me where to find those who 
would be preferred to the fishermen of Cape Cod ? 
Examine the coasting trade ! now employing nearly 
half the tonnage of the country. Within my recol- 



60 

lection one of the most important branches of it in 
the Commonwealth, that which is carried on with 
the Middle and Southern States, has sprung into 
existence, and grown to its present magnitude, un- 
der the management of natives of this County, and 
at this day it is almost exclusively in their hands. 
Look at the navigation employed in foreign trade — 
from the smallest West India craft to the largest 
freighting ship — at the New- York packets, those 
" floating palaces" as they are justly called — at the 
splendid steamboats upon all our waters — at the val- 
uable ships employed in the East India and China 
trade. In all these there are millions of precious 
lives, and many millions of property, annually en- 
trusted to the vigilence, skill and prudence of their 
commanders ; and among the loremost of these com- 
manders are the native sons of Cape Cod. Many of 
them still claim their residence among you ; and 
while we are this day enjoying the delights of social 
intercourse, they are engaged in arduous duties on 
the ocean, or in distant lands, with their thoughts 
turned to what is passing on their native shore — their 
hopes, their wishes, their affections centering here, 
and clustering round the spot where dwells the dear- 
est objects of their love. Were it proper to do so, 
Mr. President, I could give the names of a host of 
such as I have described, who began their career in 
humble stations — names now known far and wide, 
respected and confided in by the whole comnnmity ; 
names familiar to the ears, and dear to the hearts of 
many Avho now listen to me. I would thus call the 
attention of my young friends to the past and the 
present, and would animate them to exertion by the 
assurance that what has been done by the sons of 
Cape Cod, may, and must, be done again by their 
successors. That the same, nay, a broader field of 
enterprise, a more extended sphere of action is be- 
fore them ; and that by superior education, they arc 
better prepared to enter upon this field and exert the 
energies that God has given them. 1 would tell 



61 

them what many of us have experienced, that, thanks 
to the well-earned reputation, and fair fame, which 
our fathers secured by their labors and their virtues, 
the birth-right of every child of Cape Cod is an in- 
heritance more precious than silver or gold ; and that 
wherever they go, or wherever they seek employ- 
ment that requires integrity, industry, energy and 
perseverance, the best letter of recommendation they 
can carry, is a certificate of their birth-place — evi- 
dence of their Cape Cod origin. With this they will 
be sure to find the employment they seek, and in the 
exercise of the qualities I have enumerated they can 
scarcely fail, with God's blessing, to command suc- 
cess. While I thus give encouragement to youthful 
aspirants for fame or fortune, I would impress upon 
their minds the high responsibility thyt these advan- 
tages impose upon them ; 1 would remind them that 
they owe much to the past, and the future, as well 
as to the present, and would bid them remember the 
motto before us, " What our fathers obtained, may 
their sons ever protect." I would tell them that 
the best return they can make for the rich inherit- 
ance they have received, is to use it faithfully and 
wisely, and transmit it unsullied, unimpaired, to 
those who are to come after them, so that when 
another Centennial wave of time shall have rolled 
into the boundless gulf of eternity, and a future gen- 
eration assembled here, or elsewhere, to celebrate 
the return of this anniversary, they may think, and 
speak of those who in this interim shall have been 
gathered to their fathers, with the same honest pride 
with which we cherish the venerated memory of 
those who have already passed away. 

Mr. President, after hearing the interesting and 
eloquent addresses that have been made, and in the 
expectation that we are to be favored with more, I 
feel that in barely touching upon these "matters, I 
have already occupid time that might have been bet- 
ter spent ill listening to others. But whatever may 
be the consequence, I cannot refrain from adverting 



62 

to one circumstance in this celebration which has 
given me more gratification than I shall attempt to 
express. The occasion itself brings up so many 
interesting associations that it could scarcely fail to 
call forth the best feelings and emotions of our na- 
ture — to inspire us with grateful sentiments for the 
past and the present, and with cheering hopes for 
the future. But the circumstance to which 1 allude, 
gives life and animation to the whole, and throws a 
charm over it that nothing else could impart. I need 
notname this circumstance, for sure I am there is some- 
thing in the bosom of every Man which will tell 
him what it is. Can any one survey the scene before 
him — can he listen to Woman's gentle voice, and 
gaze upon her cheerful smile, and not feel in every 
vein a warmer glow ? Is there a man — gathered as 
we are with all our social sympathies awakened, to 
commemorate an event which has tended to secure 
to us so many social blessings — is there a man, aged 
or youthful, whose bosom does not swell — whose 
heart does not expand with a more joyous feeling, 
to find himself surrounded by, and mingling at the 
festive board, with that brighter and better portion of 
Heaven's creation, without whose participation and 
sympathy, all the blessings, all the blandishments 
of life would be cold and valueless ? 

I am not, Sir, by any means a thorough going dis- 
ciple of the Miss Martincau school, but I do so far 
concur in some of the views of that distinguished 
lady, as to believe that even in this favored country, 
Woman is not yet in possession of all her rights ; — 
and I doubt not the time will come, (and at no dis- 
tant day too) when important changes will be made 
in the law s relating to her rights of property, and 
her personal rights. But this is neither the time 
nor the place to revise the Statutes. Let me not be 
misunderstood. I am not one of those visionary 
enthusiasts who profess to believe that no distinc- 
tion should be made in the employment and pursuits 
of the sexes — who propose that husband and wife 



63 

shall change Work, and in sailor's phi'asc take " spell 
and spell" at hoeing corn and tending baby. On the 
contrary, Sir, I believe that the great Creator has 
imposed upon woman appropriate and peculiar du- 
ties ; and that there is marked out for her a proper 
sphere of action Irom which I would not have her 
deviate. 1 should regret to see her enter the ])olitical 
arena,engage in party struggles,or participate in party 
triumphs. Her proper place is not the Hall of Legis- 
lation, nor the tented field. I wish not to see her pre- 
senting repoits, nor presenting arms (hostile arms, I 
mean Sir,) — and above all, 1 deprecate the practice, 
which I fear is becoming too common, for woman, un- 
der the influence of an excited imagination, to leave 
her domestic circle, abandon the care of her family, and 
go forth, roaming about the country, making address- 
es to crowded and mixed assemblies, and striving 
to excite and agitate the community. I would not 
have her do this for any purpose, in any cause ; no 
Sir, not even in the sacred cause of human Ireedom, 
the noblest cause to which human energies can be 
devoted. But upon occasions like the present — at 
all celebrations of the birthday of our National In- 
dependence — whenever the event to be commemor- 
ated is one in which all have a common interest, I 
deem it proper that woman should share in all that 
is proper to be done. I rejoice that Cape Cod has 
set so good an example, though I should expect no 
less from her, for the records of history show, that 
for the first hundred and fifty years after the settle- 
ment of the country, the women of Cape Cod were 
" ever ready to set, and to follow, a good example," 
and for the other fifty years, I want no record, for I 
can bear testimony to the fact myself. I trust that 
the example will be widely followed, and that ere 
lono; no such celebration will take place without 
the full participation of those whose presence glad- 
dens every heart. And why should it not be so. If 
these celebrations are designed to connnemorate the 
toils and sacrifices of the early settlers, did not 



64 

woman take full share in such trials ? and could our 
lathers have endured their privations and sufferings, 
but for her sympathy, and the support her presence 
gave ? If they are designed to commemorate the In- 
dependence of our country, does not the pure flame 
of patriotism burn as brightly in woman's gentle 
bosom as in the sterner breast of man ? I believe 
that her love of country, and of the institutions of 
our country — silent and unobtrusive as it may seem 
— is as deep, as sincere, aye. Sir, and as disinterested 
too, as that which is felt by the most clamorous 
Patriot who writes himself Man. I may be told that 
such scenes are not suitable ibr woman — that excess- 
es are oftimes committed \vhich would shock her 
delicacy, and wound her feelings. I admit that 
excesses are too often indulged in, upon these occa- 
sions, but can any man devise a more effectual check 
upon them than the presence of woman ? I believe 
that in this way she can do more to promote the 
righteous cause of temperance, than by ail the pledg- 
es of totnl abstinence that she can sign, or all the 
memorials she can prepare to enlighten Legislatures 
on the subject of license laws. 

But, after all, Mr. President, the power is in her 
own hands if she chooses to exert it. We know. Sir, 
that it is customary at these celebrations to have an 
address, a dinner, and a ball. It has been usual to 
permit the ladies to hear the address, (and seldom 
has the indulgence been so great a boon as on the 
present occasion) dull or eloquent as it might chance 
to be. They are then virtually sent home " solitary 
and alone" to attend to domestic cares, while we, 
self-styled " lords of creation" set down at the con- 
vivial board, and after indulging to satiety in all the 
luxuries we can gather round us, we condescend to 
summon the ladies to the ball room and favor them 
with our company for the rest of the day. Now, Sir, 
I propose to tlie ladies to take this matter into their 
own hands, and address our sex to this efiect — 

Gentlemen — " We have a common interest with 

8 



65 

you in the object of this celebration — we feel this 
interest as deeply as you do, and are disposed to unite 
in a suitable manifestation of it, and to join in all 
festivities proper for the occasion. But we must 
share in all or none — if you choose to exclude us 
from the dinner-table, we choose to exclude our- 
selves from the ball-room — if jou dine alone, you 
may dance alone, and then you may retire alone, and 
indulge in " sweet or bitter fancies" as they may 
chance to come." Try this, my fair friends, for a 
single year ; let your motto from one end of the 
Union to the other be, " dine together and dance 
together," or " dine alone and dance alone," and 
trust me you will have no further cause to complain 
in this matter. 

Mr. President, upon such a topic one scarce knows 
when to stop. I will not, however, trespass longer 
upon your indulgence, but with your permission will 
propose a sentiment which I have cherished from my 
youth upward — one that 1 hope to cherish to the 
last hour that may be allotted me on this side eterni- 
ty. It is a sentiment in which there is no mingling 
of party spirit — about which there can be no party 
strife — for its truth is felt and acknowledged by whig 
and tory — by " barbarian, scythian, bond and free." 
It is stamped upon the heart of every human being 
who claims to be a man. Nerveless be the arm that 
will not fill a bumper — sealed in unbroken silence be 
the lips that will not respond when I give you 

Woman! lovely woman. — The guardian of our childhood — 
the companion of manhood — the solace of declining years, and 
through life the source of our highest, and holiest earthly joys. 

" The world was sad, the garden was a wild, 
And man, the hermit sighed, 'till woman smiled." 



The remarks of Mr. Sturgis were followed by a 
neat original Yankee Song for the occasion, rhyming 
the changes with ready wit, on the Cape towns and 



66 

Cape names, which was sung by Mr. Richardson, of 
Boston, to the tune of Yankee Doodle. 

ISoiig^ for file ISariistable Celebration. 

BY WILLIAM HAYDEN, JR. ESQ. 
Our Pilgrim Father!? started off, 

Two hundred years ago, sir — 
To seek their fortunes o'er the sea, 

And anchor'd down below, sir — 
And, as they had no other food, 

Considered worth the dishing. 
They got their sinkers, hooks and lines, 

And went right out a fishing — 

Yankee Doodle, keep it up — 

Yankee Doodle Dandy — 
At catching fish, or sailing ships, 

Our Cape men are quite handy. 

They pulled the Cod and Haddock in. 

And fished without a rod, sir — 
And, for the first big fish they caught. 

They named the Cape, " Cape Cod," sir — 
And, as they had amazing luck, 

The fishing was so handy, 
They thought they'd settle on the Cape, 

Although 'twas rather sandy. 

And though our sand won't raise much grass, 

It renders us some sarvice — 
It is the sand which makes the glass. 

That's made by Deming Jarvis. 
The Oyster-beds around our shores. 

They serve to make the land rich — 
East-/trt7H and Chat-^awi are as good 

As any hams for Sandwich. 

'Tis truly wonderful, I'm sure, 

I can't tell how it happens — 
We furnish all your Ships with mates. 

And almost all your Cap'ins. 



67 

You can't expect much wealth down here — 

We live by waves and surges — 
But yet, sometimes, a t^ape Cod boy, 

Gets rich like William Sturgis. 

To trace your debt to old Cape Cod, 

It needs no brush or pallet — 
There's Dimmock, Gray, and Thaciieu too. 

The Searses and George Hallett. 
Some service we have done the State — 

From us you get your law, sir — 
There's Mr Bassett, he's your clerk, 

And there's Chief Justice Shaw, sir. 

There are as good fish in the sea, 

As from it e'er were draw'd sir — 
And so, we've some as good men left. 

As those who've gone abroad, sir. 
Among the nice men left behind, 

Of Marstons' we've two brothers — 
The Swifts, the Crockers, and the Cobbs, 

And yet a host of others. 

Our lot is something like Lot's wife. 

When on this spot we halt sir, — 
Our only monument must be 

A pillar of good salt, sir — 
Your richer lands, and fertile soils, 

We will not waste a wish on — 
We find our own quite good enough, 

For us to dry our fish on. 

When we get through our toasts and songs, 

We'll go to t'other Hall sir — 
We mean to finish off the thing, 

By giving you a Ball, sir ; 
And if the Cape Girls want to dance, 

'Till morn puts out the taper. 
Let every Cape man show that he 

Is ready for a Caper. 



68 

Yankee Doodle, keep it up — 

Yankee Doodle Dandy — 
At catchmg hearts, and keeping them 

Our Cape Girls are right handy 



By the First Vice President. The Orator of the day. In 
his eloquent and impressive address, he told us, among many 
other most excellent things, that in 1690 Ichabod Paddock went 
from Cape Cod to Nantucket to teach them how to Mil and try 
whales. We thank him that in 1839 he has come to Cape Cod 
to learn us how to immortalize and appreciate our ancestors. 

Professor Palfrey, the Orator of the day, made 
a few brief acknowledgments, in the course of which 
he gave a vivid description of wooing and Avedding 
of a Yarmouth beauty, wife of Josiah Quincy, of 
Quincy, and mother of Josiah Quincy, Junior, the 
eminent revolutionary patriot, and concluded by j)ro- 
posing the following toast : 

The daughters of Cape Cod ; worthy to be wives and moth- 
ers of good and famous men 

By a Vice President. " The younger Winthrop of Connec- 
ticut." — A pure example for modern Statesmen. When Charles 
2d, wishing to advance him, wrote thus — " the world shall take 
notice of the sense I have of your merits in promoting the 
happiness of your country," the disinterested man thought not 
of himself, and asked favors only for the community of which he 
was a member. 

To this toast, Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, briefly replied, as 
follows : 

I cannot fail, Mr. President, to feel highly gratified 
at being called on to respond to the seniiment which 
has just been given ; and at thus being introduced to 
this large and most respectable assembly as a de- 
scendant of the distinguished settler of Connecticut, 
to whose memory so handsome a tribute has been 
paid. Nor w ere the services of the younger Winthrop 
confined entirely to Coimccticut. Were I stand- 
ing on the opposite shore of this noble Bay, I might 



69 

point, I believe, to a large and flourishing town, no 
less than one of the shire towns of old Essex, as the 
fruit of his enterprise within the Colony with which 
his father was more prominently connected. 

But while I heartily thank the company for the 
respect they have shown for the name of a venerated 
ancestor ; while I tender, too, my most sincere ac- 
knowledgments to the Vice President, from whom 
the sentiment proceeded, for taking so kind a mode 
of calling me up, I cannot refrain from saying, that 
it is to other names than that by which it is my 
humble birthright to be called, that this occasion 
belongs. It is to the Bradfords and Carvers, the 
Brewsters and Hincklcys, the elder and younger 
Robinsons, the elder and younger Winslows, the 
elder and younger Otises, and not to the Winthrops, 
whether elder or younger, of Connecticut or of Mas- 
sachusetts, that the honors of this day are exclusively 
due. 

I may be pardoned, also, for suggesting, in expla- 
nation of the sentiment which 1 propose to offer, 
that it is to no hereditary claim that I am indebted 
for the distinction of a seat at this table, — that it is 
not to name or blood, but to the relation which I 
have the honor to hold to the Legislative Depart- 
ment of the State, to the station to which I have 
been called in the service of the Representatives of 
the People, that I am indebted for the privilege of 
being present on this occasion. And let me add, 
Sir, that I felt as if I should have been almost faith- 
less to that station, as if, now, if never before, I 
should have neglected one of its plainest and most 
peremptory obligations, had I disregarded the kind 
summons which was served upon me by Mr. Sheriff, 
to participate in the festivities of this anniversary.— 
There is at least one eye. Sir, in the HalJ which is 
the sphere of my official duties, always open, or cer- 
tainly never sleeping ; — there is at least one repre- 
sentative, if not of any portion of the ])eo|)le them- 
selves, certainly of a great and leading interest of 



70 

the people, a representative which depends on no 
party distinction, either for his annual return — I 
should rather say, lor his perpetual presence there — 
which 1 should scarcely have dared ever again to 
confront, had I failed, on any score but that of im- 
perious necessity, to make an appearance at this 
Cape Cod celebration. 

The company have already been informed of the 
origin of the name by which this Cape is designated. 
The Orator has told them that Bartholomew^ Gos- 
nold, in 1602, having found great store of Cod fish 
here, denominated the Cape accordingly. But they 
have not yet been told of an attempt which was 
made not many years after to alter this appellation. 
When John Smith, the famous founder of Virginia, 
Avrotc an account of his voyages to New England in 
1616, he dedicated his book to "the High Hopeful 
Prince Charles," afterwards King Charles the First. 
And in that dedication he made it his humble suit to 
his Royal Highness, that he would be pleased to 
change the barbarous names which had been hitherto 
attached to the various points along the coast, and 
to substitute for them some genteeler and more ele- 
gant English appellations — " so that posterity might 
ever be al)le to say that Prince Charles was their 
godfather." 

Prince Charles, accordingly, appears to have tried 
his hand at christening the Capes and Bays and 
Rivers along the coast. And some of his names 
remain to this day. To Cape Tragabigzanda, for 
example, lor such was the truly barbarous title of 
the Northern headland of the Massachusetts Bay, 
(though there were tender associations with it which 
must have rendered it any thing but barbarous to 
Smith's ear, and it was probably the last name that 
he himself woukl have desired to have changed,) to 
Caj)c Tragabigzanda, he gave the name of Cape 
Ann, — and it has been called so ever since. But 
although to Cape Cod, the Prince assigned no other 
name than that of Royalty itself, calling it Cape 



71 

James, after the dread King James, his father, the 
bold and noble headland, whose settlement we this 
day celebrate, as if in anticipation of the glorious 
destiny which awaited it, as if in vindication of its 
claim to be not only the scene of the hrst great orig- 
inal contract of Democratic self-government, but 
the birthplace of him also, who was to breathe the 
breath of life into the independence of a vast Amer- 
ican Nation, refused to acknowledge either a Prince 
as its godfather, or a King for its namesake, and 
clung fast and forever to its old, original, homely, 
but plain, republican title — Cape Cod. 

But this. Sir, is not the only instance in which a 
Cod seems to have proved an overmatch ibr a King, 
in this Commonwealth. In one of those letters of 
John Adams to Mr. Tudor, in which he describes 
the principal revolutionary incidents of which Mas- 
sachusetts was the theatre, and of which the Orator 
of the day has already given us so many strik- 
ing extracts, — in that very one, of these letters, 1 
believe, in which he sketches the scene of your own 
Barnstable Patriot, engaged in his immortal argument 
against writs of assistance, — we are told that there 
might have been seen in those days in the Old State 
House, where this scene occurred, two gorgeous, 
full-length portraits, supposed to be real Vandykes, 
of Charles the II., and James the II. Those portraits 
have long since disappeeued from our public halls. — 
But if any one will enter our Representative's cham- 
ber in the new State House, he will find suspended 
there instead of them, a full-length likeness of a fine 
large Cod. This, Sir, I need hardly say, was the 
Representative to which I alluded, — and, I say again, 
that, though it does not become me to rely too con- 
fidently, in the uncertain state all of things human, 
and still more of all things political, upon being again 
permitted to take a seat in that chamber, either as 
officer or member, yet should such a fortune be in 
store for me, I should hardly dare to look that fish 
in the face again, had I absented myself, without the 



72 

most compulsory and overruling reasons, from the 
celebration of this day. 

Nor being here, Mr. President, can I find it in my 
heart to give any other sentiment than that suggest- 
ed by this time-honored emblem. And did not the 
horizontal beams which now penetrate the seams of 
yonder canvass, warn me that the dinner must be 
soon relinquished for the dance, I should pray leave 
to enter briefly but seriously into some account of 
the influence which has been exerted upon our 
Commonwealth, and our whole country, from its 
earliest settlement to the present day, by the branch 
of industry which it was designed to represent. I 
had proposed so to do. But at this late hour, and 
while so many other gentlemen remahi to be called 
upon, I should be unpardonable, were I to trespass 
longer on your patience. Let me only say then, as 
a sentiment, — 

The Fisheries. — Their emblem is in our Hails of Legislation 
— may tlieir interests never be absent from the hearts of those 
who have a seat there. 



The Toast Master, in reading the following letter 
of Judge Mellen, introduced it briefly by a reference 
to the remarkable fact that though Cape Cod fur- 
nished the least amount of litigation of any equally 
populous and busy community in the country, or he 
might add in the civilized world, yet it had furnish- 
ed an unusual proportion of eminent and high Judic- 
iary officers. Among these \^ ere our native towns- 
man the present Chief Justice of the State, and one 
of the Associate Judges, (Morton) who was a de- 
scendant from Cape Cod ancestors. [His Grand- 
parents were of Sandwich.] The ex-Chief Justice 
of Maine, was also an adopted citizen of Barnstable 
in the early part of his life. Judge George Thach- 

cr, late of the Supreme Court of this State, was a 

9 



73 

native of Yarmouth. Daniel Davis, the late Solicit- 
or General, his father, Judge Daniel Davis, of the 
Common Pleas, and Colonel James Otis, (the father 
of James Otis, who gave the first impulse to the ball 
of the American Revolution) a Judge of the Supreme 
Court under the Colonj ; were natives of Barnsta- 
ble. 

But though the Cape was so fertile in judges, the 
dockets of her Courts were scarcely more than form. 
Disputes were rare, and most of those were settled 
between the parties or left out to men. This fact 
was the more honorable to the people from the cir- 
cumstance that there was a vast amount of active 
business involving every variety of contract out of 
which litigation was most likely to grow. 

Mr. Hallctt said that we should value this trait the 
more because we could trace it directly to the men 
who first landed at Provincetown. They brought it 
here with them, and it Avas one of the best among 
the grand moral assets of the inheritance they have 
bequeathed to us ; for it is related of them, that upon 
their departure from Leyden in Holland, (where they 
had resided for twelve years of their pilgrimage, be- 
fore embarking for the new world ;) the magistrates 
of Leyden, in the public place of Justice, made this 
memorable remark concerning them. " These Eng- 
lish have lived among us now these twelve years, 
and yet we never had any suit or accusation come 
against amj of them." Mr. H. concluded by hoping 
that the frugal people of Cape Cod might always 
cherish the notions their Ancestors had about going 
to law. 



74 

From Judge Mellen, ex-Chief Justice of Maine, 
to the Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements. 

Portland, July 19, 1839. 

Yours of the 13th inst. Avas received yesterday. Be assured, 
sir, that I entertain a grateful sense of the honor, which, in this 
instance has been conferred upon me. Your venerable town 
was the scene of my early years, immediately after leaving col- 
lege, and a thousand delightful and interesting associations are 
intimately connected with the period when it constituted my 
home for several years, more than half a century since. It 
would add much to my happiness to revisit the scene, and join 
in the recollections and social joys of your Celebration ; but 
pre-engagements, of a professional character, are such that I 
must reluctantly decline accepting the invitation. My heart 
will be among you : and I avail myself of the privilege of being 
])resent, so far, as to jjlace the subjoined toast at your disposal. 
Be pleased, sir, to accept, for yourself, and those whom you 
represent, my hearty thanks and best wishes. 
With esteem and respect. 

Your obd't servant, 

PRENTISS MELLEN. 

The Memory of James Otis. — An illustrious native of the 
town of Barnstable ; an ornament of his country, and devoted 
champion of her freedom. The lightning of his genius and 
impassioned eloquence, threw a dazzling splendor on that life, 
which, at an after period, was instantly extinguished by the light- 
ning of Heaven. 



As an appropriate and interesting appendage to 
this sentiment, Mr. William F. Otis was called 
upon to read at the dinner, the following letter from 
his father, Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, who is a 
nephew of the illustrious James Otis, whose name 
on this occasion as " the pioneer of American Inde- 
pendence," was held in most honorable reminiscence. 

Letter from H. G. Otis. 

Boston, Aug. 31, 1839. 

Your polite invitation to attend the Centennial Jubilee at 
Barnstable was duly received ; an answer has been delayed, in 
the hope of my being able to make it in person. 

Many years have elapsed, since 1 found it expedient to impose 
upon myself the restraint of absence from all convivial assem- 



75 

blies, but the feelings of my heart dictate to me that this, should 
be an exception. I am, however, embargoed by the gout, and 
can only send you my kindest sympathies and respects. 

There can be, in the course of nature, but few persons, pres- 
ent at your Jubilee, who retain the vivid and precious recollec- 
tions which I do, of what Barnstable was in the year 1775 ; of 
its scenery, its localities, its people ; and of their firmness, and 
patriotism, during that terrible year. 

Barnstable, was not only the place of the birth and residence 
of my immediate ancestors for four generations, but it afforded, 
to my childhood, an asylum from the storms of war, and a retreat 
for my peaceful studies, during the siege of Boston. 1 had been 
there but a few weeks, before the news arrived of the conflagra- 
tion at Charlestown. This came to us, not in the shape wliich 
it has since assumed, of a real victory, though nominal defeat ; 
but with the unmitigated horrors, of conflagration and massacre, 
and as a specimen of the mode in which our peaceful villages 
were intended to be swept with the fire and sword. 

Never can 1 forget the sensation of the people of Barnstable 
in that dismal hour ; I sincerely believe, from impressions then 
made, and constantly renewed since, that every man, capable of 
bearing arras, was ready to rush to the death in revenge of his 
martyred brethren, and in defence of his country. The minds 
of the people were convulsed by all the violent passions of our 
nature, except fear, which seemed to be unknown. 

From that time, the good people of Barnstable and Cape Cod, 
were harrassed by perpetual alarms. The militia were con- 
stantly on the alert, the minute men and volunteers often slept 
upon their arms ; on one day, the British Tenders were making 
demonstrations outside of Sandy Neck, at other times, their 
larger vessels were cruising off Hyannis, and the southern coast, 
threatening to land, no one could tell where ; and during the 
whole of this period, nothing was heard among the people of 
Barnstable, but the note of preparation, the voice of patriotism, 
and the universally expressed determination to conquer or to die. 

These scenes, to say nothing of the part taken in them by my 
near relatives, were sufficiently stirring to make a deep impres- 
sion, on the mind of a boy in his tenth year ; but a thousand per- 
sonal circumstances, concurred to inspire me with a deep and 
abiding interest in Barnstable and its inhabitants. 

I was placed at school with the amiable Mr. Hilliard, Pastor 
of the East Parish, where I passed my time from Mondays to 
Saturdays. On the last day of the week, I was sent for and con- 
veyed to the patriarchal mansion, and attended on Sundays the 
religious instructions of the pious and venerable Mr. Shaw. In 
these weekly journeyings, I became familiar with the location 
of every house and buiiding between my points of departure, 
and with the younger inmates, of many of them ; and I feel as 
if I could jot down, the principal part of them, upon a plan of 
the road. 



76 

At this school, I formed a friendship, which has endured ta 
this hour, without any variableness or shadow of change, with 
Thomas H. Perkins, my fellow exile, whose successful enter- 
prize, and magnificent bounty, have raised him to be an orna- 
ment to his country and profession. 

I also formed other intimate acquaintances, and among others, 
with the, then future. Solicitor General of this State; — he was 
somewhat my senior, and assumed some little pretensions over 
his schoolmates, in consequence of liaving been chief volunteer 
Fifer to the Barnstable minute men; in the rudiments of which 
art, as well as of agriculture, he was instructed by a Patagonian 
Sybil, named Phillis, his Father's servant, who taught him alter- 
nately to play the fife, and to plough potatoes. 

Barnstable was not only the scene of my earliest friendship, 
but of my first love. I became enamoured of a very charming 
young person, nearly of my own age — but the course of this love 
did not run smoothly. In an innocent ramble over the fields 
and hedges, with her and other young persons, she had the mis- 
fortune to lose a necklace of genuine gold beads; the lault was 
neither hers, nor mine, but of the string on which they were 
threaded ; but still, as real mint drops were in that day very val- 
uable, and Treasury notes greatly on the decline, the circum- 
stance brought me into some discredit with the family as acces- 
sory to a loss, which impaired the faculty of resuming specie 
payments, when the time should arrive, and resulted in a future 
non-intercourse. 

These bagatelles, I fear may seem to be misplaced, and too 
light for the occasion ; but I feel as if I were writing to my 
kinsfolk, and am anxious to gain credit for sincerity on express- 
ing my sense of the claims of J3arnstable and her people upon 
my affectionate recollection and respect. 

It would indeed be most gratifving to me, to witness the tran- 
sition of Barnstable and its inhabitants from the clouds that 
liovered over them, in my time, to that sunshine of prosperity 
which enables her, this day, to present a spectacle Mliich her 
Patriots and Patriarchs would have rejoiced to see, but could not 
liave been sanguine enough to have anticipated. But I nuist 
sui)niit to my disappointment, and content myself with hoping 
that whatever changes may happen in the circumstances of her 
people, their character, as well as that of the other inhabitants 
of Cape Cod, may remain as it was in the beginning, and is now. 

" Dear lovely bow'rs of innocence and ease, 

Seats of n)y youth, when cv'ry sport could i)lease." 

I have the honor to be, with great consideration and respect, 

Your ob't serv't, 

II. G. OTIS. 



77 

The following sentiment was sent by nn eminent 
member of the Baltimore Bar, and lineal descend- 
ant of Governor Thomas Hinckley, of Barnstable, 
who w^as the Executive of Plymouth Colony from 
1681 till its union with Massachusetts in 1692. 

By Edward Hinckley, of Baltimore. The Erportx of Cape 
Cod. — May they be, for generations to come, what they have 
been in generations past, men of intelligence and integrity ; — 
commodities which never fail to bring welcome returns. 

By one of the Marshals of the day. Thomas HincMey, tlie 
last Governor of Plymouth Colony and the only Chief Magis- 
trate that resided in Barnstable. May his numerous descend- 
ants among us, hold in reverence his exemplary piety, strive to 
imitate his virtuous, unostentatious and industrious life, and 
each of them have as good a wife and make as good a husband 
as he did. 

The Toast Master announced the following well 
deserved tribute to our escort, in behalf of the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements, which was warmly received. 

The New England Guards. — A gallant specimen of an in- 
dependent, self-sustained, volunteer militia. Cape Cod gives 
them to-day, as friends, what they are always prepared to give 
their country's enemies — a warm reception. 

Capt. Bigelow, on the part of the corps, replied, 
in a neat and brief address, and concluded by offer- 
ering the following sentiment : 

The town of Barnstable. — Honored in the history of the past, 
distinguished in the present by the talents and patriotism of her 
sons. May the future see no change but that consequent upon 
the progress and improvement of succeeding generations. 



Toliiaiteer Tosasfs. 

[The following is a specimen of the spirit and 
feeling which pervaded the whole company. We 
regret that we could not collect and string, together 
all the pearls that adorned that day.] 

By the Chief Marshal of the day, Henry Crocker.— C«pe Cod 
and her emigrant children. Though her sterile soil and circum- 
scribed boundaries shcdl continue to expatiate her sons to wider 



78 

fields of enterprise and into more certain paths to greatness — 
yet may she, on her tri-ccntennlal Jubilee, gather home to her 
rejoicings, a like goodly family — eminent in the jurisprudence 
and literature of the State, and of enviable rank in the science, 
commerce and productive labor of the whole world — none of 
whom shall ever forget their origin, or he ashamed of their 
ancestry. 

By the Toast Master. The prophecy of James Otis in 1768,, 
verified by living history on his native soil, in 1839. "Our 
fathers (said he to a British advocate of the Stamp Act) were a 
good people, we have been a free people and if you will not let 
us remain so any longer, we shall be a §^?-cr/# people." 

By Nathaniel Hinckley. 21ic next Centennial— ^M?iy it find 
our places filled by those, who, having heeded the injunction of 
the pious Robinson, " to adopt and practice upon any ncjo prin- 
ciples of truth which might break forth," shall be blessed in the 
exercise of perfect, civil and religious liberty and equality. 

By Rev. Henry Hersey. Inhabitants of Cape Cod. — The 
purity of their love for their ancestry, is evidenced, in a re- 
markable degree, by the fact, that they have travelled longer than 
those of neighboring communities, in the good old ways of their 
fathers. 

By Benjamin Hallet of Barnstable, a revolutionary soldier and 
seaman. Revolutionary light — May it continue to shine bright- 
er and brighter unto the perfect day of civil and religious free- 
dom. 

By Joshua Sears, of Boston. The spirit of the Pilgrims — 
the spirit of reasonable liberty ; the liberty of conscience, and 
the liberty to exercise their own judgment in the management 
of their domestic affairs. No perils, no sufferings deterred 
them in the pursuit. May the same spirit animate their poster- 
ity to defend and perpetuate what their Fathers acquired. 

By W. J. Dewey, of New Orleans, a Cape Codder. Cape 
Cod Fishermen — May their " lines ever fall in pleasant places," 
for they always gain more by hookihvin by crook. 
Tune — 'It was Sam Jones the Fisherman.' 

By Capt. Josiah Sturgis, of the U. S. Cutter Hamilton. Com- 
mcree — May every fathom of cordage employed in its service 
prove a halter, and every yard of canvass a pall, to its enemies. 

By Capt. Benjamin Rich, of Boston, (sent.) The whole of 
Cape Cod — When our Pilgrim Fathers wrote out the records of 
Liberty upon the one end, the other furnished the sand that 
kept them from blotting. 

By Russell Freeman. Mr. President, much has been said 
and sung about the Last CocWd Hat — I propose to you, sir, 
and I do it with reverence, 

The Last White Wig — The memory of the Rev. Timothy 
Alden, who lived and died the minister of Yarmouth, and whose 
life filled nearly half the space of the time we celebrate. 



79 



By a Marshal of the day. Civilization and Social Liberty — 
Two hundred years have brought them to perfection : can any 
doubt it, when we see around ih\s festive board, on such an oc- 
casion, the bright faces and glowing smiles of our fair country 
women ? 

By a Lady. Chief Justice Shato — There is HOPE* in the 
Judiciary. 

By Francis Bassett, Clerk of the U. S. District Court, (a na- 
tive.) Cape Cod — The first discovered land of the Pilgrims, it 
will be the last to loose sight of their virtues. 

By John L. Dimmock, one of the Marshals. Our descend- 
ants in 1939 — May they then as we do now — come from the 
North, South, East and West, and celebrate our natal day — 
with an honest pride and pleasure worthy of their ancestors. 

By S. B. Phinney. The Commerce of the U. States. — The 
wealth of the Indies could never repay the sons of Cape Cod, 
for their toils and sacrifices, to extend its bounds and perpetuate 
its prosperity. But the only reward they wish is the fruits of 
honest industry and a good conscience. 

By F. W. Crocker. IVie Inhabitants of Cape Cod — Their 
birth place a narrow strip of earth, their homes the whole sur- 
face of the globe. 

By John Henry Clifford, one of the Governor's Aids. Cape 
Cod — Her pine trees once furnished to Massachusetts the de- 
vice for her flag. She has retained the prouder destinction of 
furnishing, through all her history, the truest hearts and the 
stoutest arms by which that flag has been defended. 

By Col. Peter Dunbar, of Boston. The Cape Codders of 
1639. — May their descendants for two hundred years to come 
be as patriotic, industrious and virtuous as they were, and the 
inhabitants of these United States will never suffer for want of 
Codfish or have a prohibitory act to prevent eating tliem. 

By E. M. Gardner, of Nantucket. The Scholars of Barnsta- 
ble County, cd}sent and present. — Amid the fairest flowers in 
the garden of our Literature, and among the noblest trees upon 
the hill of Science, we find exotics from the barren sands of 
Cape Cod ; those sands that were early pressed by the pilgrim's 
feet, and are still the home of the Pilgrim Spirit. 

By Henry J. Oliver, of Boston. Our Forefathers — 
" The world was all before them, where to choose 
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide." 

By B. F. Ilallett, of Boston. Cape Cod Farmers. — One of 
the best samples of that frugal and virtuous class who labor in 
the earth ; of whom Jefferson well said " They are the chosen 
people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breast he 
has made his peculiar deposite for substantial and genuine vir- 
tues. 



*The name ol llie wife of the Cliief Justice, a Barnstable lady. 



80 



By James Harlow, of Carver. Religious Freedom. — A senti- 
ment in which every true American must concur. He should 
wear it upon his arm, and bind it upon his heart, and guard it 
as the most sacred right of man. 

By Thomas W. Sears, of Boston. Cape Cod. — The place 
where the wanderers in the " 31ai/ Flower'''' first found a resting 
place. It has since been distinguished as a place of rest and 
hospitality to the tempest-tossed mariner, and the weary travel- 
ler. 

By Walter Crocker, one of the Vice Presidents. Descend- 
ants of the Pilgrims. — May we act well our part in handing 
down in their purity, the blood bought privileges, civil and re- 
ligious, which our Pilgrim Fathers, under God, handed to us, 
even to the latest generations — and finally meet the former with 
the latter, around his throne to celebrate His praises through 
eternity. 

By J. Farris, of Plymouth. Our Ancestors mid our Postcri- 
ty. — May we never forget that the only way we can discharge 
our obligations to the former is transmitting their dearly- 
bought bequest of freedom, unimpaired to the latter. 

The following alluded to the Rock, a mile west 
from the Court House, on the main road, where 
Lothrop and his Church partook of the communion 
on the first settlement. 

By Uriel Crocker, of Boston. 21ie West Barnstable Church 
— the first independent Congregational Church in the icorld. — 
May the adhesion of their descendants to the principles of civil 
and religious Liberty, he as firm, as the consecrated Rock 
around which their Fathers worshipped with the venerated 
Lothrop. 

By Prince Hawes, of Boston. Co/;f Cod. — Though barren 
in her soil, she is productive of men who honor the Bench and 
the Bar — who flourish in commerce — are respectable as me- 
chanics — industrious in their husbandry — and the fame of her 
seamen is proverbial the world over. 

By Z. D. Bassett. The Beaut i/, Brilliancy and Order of the 
scene before us : May Heavens richest blessing rest upon it ; — 
and in that day when God shall make up his Jewels, not an in- 
dividual be missing. 

By Joseph A. Davis. Cape Cod Farins. — Selected less for 
the depth of their soil, than the depth of their soundings. 

By Adolphus Davis, of Boston. The Chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements — The skillful navigator to the wealth 
of the Indies. 

[The following were by the absent and the pres- 
ent without the names being appended. We have 

10 



81 

found all so good, that not a single sentiment which 
came to the hands of the Toast Master was omitted.] 

Cape Cod — Though she may not boast of her Colleges and 
Halls of Learning, she has a prouder moral monument in her 
nursery of hardy, industrious and fearless mariners, the Fisher- 
ies ; the great Primary School of our gallant Navy 

Our Clergy — Laborers in the good vineyard, may they incul- 
cate temperance in all things, and eschew fanaticism. 

Boston and Cape Cod — As inseparable in their mutual rela- 
tions to each other, and as unpalatable alone, as Codfish and 
Potatoes. 

A fair division — Clams, quahaugs and codfish to our friends 
— the shells and scales to our enemies. 

The Union — May the maxim adopted by the Fathers of the 
Revolution, be recognized, and respected by their posterity to 
the last period of time, — " That united we stand, divided we 
falir 

The County of Barnstable — She points to this assembly, and 
in the language of the Roman Matron of old, exclaims, " Lo ! 
these are my jewels." 

Cape Cod Industry, Cape Cod Frugality, Cape Cod Pros- 
perity, and Cape Cod Forever. 

The Ladies of Cape Cod — Pre-eminently exemplary for cdl 
the domestic virtues. 



By this time the last rajs of the sun were passing 
through the Pavilion, and the ladies began to think 
of dressing for the ball. It was time to retire, though 
half the good things on hand had not been served up. 
There were letters to be read from several distin- 
guished invited guests, who had been obliged to de- 
cline being present. 

An Original Song by a descendant of Cape Cod, 
was sung by the whole company to the tune of 
"Auld Lang Syne," and the gratified assembly, 
apparently charmed with all they had enjoyed and 
with each other, left the Pavilion at 7 o'clock, in the 
same admirable good order that distinguished every 
movement of this ever memorable day. " And," 
in the words of the Apochraphy, " they ordained 



S2 

with d common decree (for their posterity) in no 
case to let that day pass without solemnity." 

The following is the Song referred to. 
Song'. 

TUNE AULD LANG SYNE. 

Across the sea for other homes, 

And leaving all behind, 
Our father's came from England's shores, 

A refuge here to find. 

Chorus. 
The rolling sea, the whistling wind, 

The peril and the toil, 
Ah ! what were these compared with joys 

They found on Freedom's soil ! 

They left the green fields of a home, 

The sympathy of love. 
The luxuries of social life, 

A trackless path to rove. 

Chorus. 
They left behind all thought of wealth, 

The joys of age and youth, 
Resolved to hold a nobler aim, — 

The sacred love of Truth. 

And now two hundred years have passed, — 

With grateful praise to God, 
We turn our steps to honor those 

Who sleep beneath the sod. 

Chorus. 
To IIiM who staid the savage arnj, 

Who made our Fathers free, 
Our hearts as brothers we would raise, 

As brothers bend the knee. 

Oh ! sacred be this spot to us, — 

The sons of Freedom's sires, — 
Although it teem not with the fruits 

Which grow 'mid tropic fires ! 



83 

Chorus. 
Dearer its sands, than those gay scenes 

O'er which we elsewhere roam, — 
No grace it needs to make it sweet, 

For 'tis our Fathers' home. 

The North, the South, the East, the West,. 

May all declare their worth;: — 
This is a spot we cherish more 

Than all the rest of Earth : 
Chorus. 

And though full many years have passed,, 
And time hath changed us some. 

Let all join hearts and hands as one, 
And bless the Pilgrims Home. 



The closing scene was the Ball in the splendidly 
decorated hall prepared for the occasion, in the rear 
of the new Court House, 76 by 40 feet in extent. — 
The hand of taste had enriched it with every elegant 
decoration. The walls and roof were hung with 
white cloth, presented by a gentleman of Boston for 
the occasion, which beautifully contrasted with the 
wreaths of evergreens and flowers that festooned the 
sides and entwined the pillars and rafters in most 
graceful arrangement, interspersed with horns of 
plenty and appropriate adornments ; the whole bril- 
liantly lighted with chandeliers and side lamps in 
rich profusion. Over the door was the inscription 
in evergreen, (which also hung at the entrance to 
the Pavilion) " Barnstable incorporoted A.D. 1639," 
and in front of the Orchestra in large capitals, 
"Welcome Home." 

The Court Room was transformed, as if by magic 
into a supper hall, and never was a place of justice 
filled with such a throng of beauty. The round 
tables of the lawyers were more graced by the fair 



84 

Vecipients of their delicate refeshmeiits, than if tliey 
had been the veritable round table of King Arthur's 
gallant Knights. The walls were decorated with 
choice portraits of James Otis, Judge Daniel Davis, 
his son Solicitor General Davis, Judge George 
Thacher, late of the Supreme Court, Charles Hal- 
lett, and other sons of Barnstable. 

Between the cohnnns of the gallery w^as suspend- 
ed a venerable cradle, built by the Great Grand Fa- 
ther of Dr. Thacher, and a blanket brought over in 
one of the early vessels of the settlers wrecked on 
Thacher's Island near Cape Ann. These relics have 
been preserved for more than one hundred years in 
the family of Peter Thacher, of Yarmouth. 

The refreshments for the ball prepared by Mr. 
Wright, were as successfully and agreeably provided 
as was the dinner, and the graceful dance was con- 
tinued until an early hour. 

In the evening there was a shower of sky rockets, 
but, as if the powers above smiled propitious on this 
joyous occasion, the whole sky was sublimely illu- 
minated by a magnificent dis})lay of Heaven's own 
fireworks, an aurora borocalis, which shot up its ra- 
diant light from all the surrounding horizon to the 
zenith, in a galaxy of glory. And so ended this 
never to be forgotten festival. 



SecoattI C'otis'se or the CeaaleaBtsfal. 

We will now notice the only omissions which has 
occurred to us, in the general account o(" the day. 
The reception of the Boston Committee and Guests 
at the landing, by the Barnstable Committee, was 
appropriate and cordial. David Crocker, Esq. as 
Chairman of the latter, and Hon. William Sturgis 
of the former, with their fellow committeemen, in- 
terchanged greetings and repaired to their respective 
quarters. Among the decorations of the Pavilion, 
the flags that floated from the three staffs in the 
centre and wings, should not have been forgotten. — 
In the centre moved the national flag, with its thirteen 
stripes, corresponding, by the way, to the thirteen 
towns of Barnstable Countv. On the left was a flair, 
for the occasion, with the Massachusetts arms, an 
Indian, &c., and on the right another with the pine 
tree, which was the Old Plymouth Colony emblem, 
the flag under which the brave men of New England 
fought many a gallant battle in the old French wars. 

The following letters were received by the Chair- 
man of the Committee of Arrangements, from invited 
guests, who were unable to be present : 

From Ex-President Adams. 

QuiNCV, .July 23, \Sm. 

I have received, with grateful sensibility, the invitation to at- 
tend the Celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of 
the incorporation of the town of Barnstable, and to participate 
in its festivities. 

It would give me great pleasure to accept this proposal, and 
I regret that a precarious state of health, and tiie growing in- 
firmities of age, with engagements which confine me necessari- 



86 

ly at home, deprive me of the hopes of being able to share iiT 
the enjoyments of the day. 

Tliat the inliabitants of ETarnstable, at the close of every cen- 
tury of their corporate existence, may have equal cause to re- 
joice in their condition, and to glory in their ancestry with those 
of the present day, will be the unceasing wish and the fervent 
prayer of their friend and iellow citizen. 

JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

From Judge Story, of the United States Su- 
preme Court. 

Cambridge, August 17, 1839. 
I have deferred answering your letter for some time, under 
the expectation, that [ might possibly be able to accept the po- 
lite invitation of the Committee of Arrangements to unite witli 
them in the celebration of the second Centennial Anniversary 
of the incorporation of Barnstable. It is now certain, that my 
engagements will prevent me from participating in the festivi- 
ties of such an interesting day. I beg to return, however, to 
the Committee, my sincere acknowledgments for the honor 
which they have done me, and to assure them that I should have- 
been highly gratified in visiting your venerable town on so joy- 
ous an occasion. If I had been able to be present, I should 
liave asked leave to offer as a toast — 

The Town of Barnstahle — The sands of her shores may shift, 
but the principles of the Fathers remain unchanged and un- 
changeable in their Children. 

I have the honor to remain, 

Very respectfully, 

Your obliged servant, 

JOSEPH STORY. 

From Judge Davis, of the United States District 
Court. 

BofJTON, August 2G, 1830. 

It would be highly gratifying to me to attend the celebration 
of the second Centennial Anniversary of the incorporation of 
Barnstable. 

Circumstances, not to be disregarded, oblige me to deny my- 
self the pleasure of meeting with the happy thousands, who will 
be assembled on that occasion. Though absent, my heart will 
be with you. 

These Centennial observances are of no common holiday 
character. A filial duty is thus honorably discharged, instruc- 
tive lessons arc inculcated, and considerations of salutary and 
abiding influence, suggested and impressed. 



87 

The early settlement of tlie Cape town?, with the best princi- 
ples of social order, and with the gladsome light of Christianity, 
I have ever considered a most happy occurrence for our beloved 
country. The whole community, and, especially, the connner- 
cial world, have had large experience -of its beneficial effects. 
In addition to such precious results, those settlements have, I 
believe, been found to afford support and comfort to their popu- 
lation, not surpassed in locations of greater apparent promise. 
Of this there is abundant evidence. It is manifested by the 
cordial attachment to their native home, uniformly observable 
in the sons and daughters of the Cape, wherever dispersed. 
Their own poet, John Osborn, of Eastham, early in the last 
century, indicated that sentiment, in his Wkalini^ ^ong, when 
describing a departure, in that employment, at the opening of 
spring : 

" Cape Cod, our dearest native land, 

We leave astern, and lose 
Its sinking cliffs and lessenning sands, 

While zephyr gently blows. 

The effusions of that child of genius always occurred to re- 
collection, when viewing, on some bright day, the magnificent 
sweep of the Cape, from the heights between Plymouth and 
Sandwich. 

If with you, at your festival, I should ask permission to offer 
the subjoined sentiment, which is submitted to the disposal of 
the Committee. 

Very respectfully 

Your obedient servant, 

JOHN DAVIS. 
The Right Arm of Massachusetts Bay — Strong, steady, and 
efficient, never weary in well doing. 

From Judge Wilde, of the Supreme Court. 

Boston, July 30th, 1830. 
I received, a few days since, your obliging favor of the 13th 
instant, by which, in behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, 
you have done me the honor to invite my attendance at the cel- 
ebration of the second Centennial Anniversary of the incorpora- 
tion of the town of Barnstable. For which I pray yoUj and the 
Committee, to accept my best thanks. I regret exceedingly, 
that my engagements are such that I am obliged to deny myscll' 
the pleasure of participating in the festivities of the day ; but 
though absent from you in the body, I shall be present with you 
in the spirit ; and on this interesting occasion, I beg leave to 
transmit to you my best wishes for the increasing prosperity of 
your good town ; — may it continue not only for another century, 
but as long as the sun and the moon shall endure ! 



88 

Anionic the desceudauts of our Pilo-rini Fathers, none have 
done more to sustain tlie honor, good morals, and prosperity ot 
our country, than the industrious, intelligent, and enterprising 
.sons of the Cape — those of your town always taking the lead, 
^nd this, under Providence, may be principally attributed to 
that which may have been erroneously considered as a local dis- 
advantage and misfortune — namely, the lightness and poverty of 
your soil, which have led to, and established early and continu- 
ed habits of industry among the people ; without which, no 
country can long continue prosperous and happy. For as idle- 
ness is the mother of all vices, so industry is ihe mother of all 
the virtues which adorn the human character. 
AVith great respect, 

I am, dear sir. 

Your fiicnd and servant, 

S. S. WILDE. 



Judge Morton, of the Supreme Court, was also 
obliged to decline an acceptance of the invitation, 
which, in a private letter to a friend, he stated he 
had hoped to be able to comply with, until the last 
day of August. He mentions the fact of being him- 
self almost a Cape Cod man, both his grand parents: 
having removed from Sandwich to Taunton. 

From Judge Dewey, of the Supreme Court. 

NoHTUAMrTON, August 2()th, 1830. 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the invitation 
of " the Committee of Arrangements, appointed by the citizens 
of Barnstable, for the celebration of the second Centennial An- 
niversary of the incorporation of that town, requesting me to 
be jMesent on that occasion, and to participate in its festivities." 

The event you propose to commemorate, is truly one of thril- 
ling interest. If the dccendants of Cape Cod are fully repre- 
sented on the occasion, you will lind around you a brotherhood 
cnd)racing in its circle many of our wisest, most learned, and 
j)atriotic citizens, in our Commonwealth. Such men will, 1 
doubt not, do ample justice to the day. 

It would give me great ])leasure to be with you on this inter- 
esting occasion, but my ollicial duties on the Circuits call me 
elsewhere. Respectfully, 

Your ob't serv't 

CHARLES A. DEWEY. 
11 



89 
From Lieut. Governor Hull. 

Sandisfield, Aug. 25tl], 18;J9. 
Your letter of July 13th, in behalf of the Committee of Ar- 
rangements, inviting nie to be present at the proposed Celebra- 
tion of the second Centennial Anniversary of the incorporation 
of the town of Barnstable, was duly received, and you would have 
received a more prompt reply, had I been enabled, at an earlier 
Jay, to decide whether I should be able to gratify my strong in- 
clination to visit your interesting section of the Commonwealth, 
on the occasion alluded to. 

I regret now, that circumstances will prevent my being pres- 
ent and participating in the festivities of the day — but beg leave 
to offer a brief sentiment, which I hope may not be deemed un- 
fitting the occasion. 

With much respect, 

Your odedient servant, 

GEORGE HULL. 
The Matron of lioo Centuries — Whose prolific properties in- 
crease with her years. May her sons always continue patriotic, 
and her daughters virtuous. 

Letter from the Collector of Boston. 

Boston, August 30, 1839. 

I cannot easily express to you how much I regret my inabili- 
to be present at the great Celebration at Barnstable, My heart 
will be with those who commemorate the early days, when 
Gosnold adventurously landed on the promontory of Cape Cod ; 
when Smith, pressing boldly from isle to isle, from inlet to iidet, 
made himself familiar with its streams and harbors ; when the 
Pilgrims, enduring every hardship, and manifesting every virtue, 
in their settlements round the bay, and lighted the little candles, 
which have kindled into a brightness, that earth itself cannot 
overshadow. I beg leave to offer as a sentiment. 

The Memory of Bartholomcio Gosnold — A martyr to his zeal 
for America. His early death prevented his beholding his vis- 
ion realized. It shall not defraud him of his well earned fame. 

With every sentiment of respect, 

GEORGE BANCROFT. 



The following sentiment was designed to have 
called up Mr. Bancroft, had he been ])rescnt : — 

The History of the United States — In his researches into the 
foundation and structure of our republican institutions, the 
philosophical and faithful historian must make his first pilgrim- 
age to the cabin of the May Flower, " where humanity recovered 



90 



its rights, and instituted government on the basis of equal laws 
and the general good."* 

Hon. John Davis, United States Senator, it was 
expected would have been present, and to have re- 
plied to the following :— 

Commerce and Fishci-ies — Two centuries ago the navigation 
of New England consisted of a single vessel and a little shallop. 
To day her thousand ships, and her fleets of hardy Fishermen, 
penetrate every sea, secure in the protection of the General 
Government, and the vigilance and elocjuence of able defenders 
of her interests in the National Councils. 

Letter from the President of Harvard University. 

Cambridgk, August 31, 1839. 

I have delayed answering your invitation, from my great un- 
willingness to decline joining in a celebration so appropriate 
and interesting. But I find my official duties, at the present 
period of the College year, urgent, and my presence at the 
University indispensable. I am compelled, therefore, with re- 
gret, to decline the proffered honor of attending your celebra- 
tion. As having been once the residence of one branch of my 
maternal ancestry, the town of Barnstable has a strong claim 
on my affections, and in common with all the intelligent inhabi- 
tants of our land, I hold it in greatful remembrance as the 
place of the birth and education of many seamen, merchants, 
and statesmen, who in times past have been and at this day are 
among the most successful, useful, and honored citizens of the 
metropolis, and of the Commonwealth. 

I ask leave to propose the following sentiment for the occa- 
sion. Very respectfully, 

Your humble servant, 

JOSIAH QUINCY. 

27tc Town of Barnstable — Planted by the fearless spirit of 
the Fathers of New England, among rocks, and sands, and seas, 
it stands — may it for ever stand ! — a monument to the prosperi- 
ty and honor of those, who exemplify in their lives, the industry, 
fidelity, and virtues of their pilgrim ancestors. 

From the Treasurer of the Commonwealth. 

TrEASUUI' OlTKE, ) 

Boston, July 3()lh, 1839. ] 
For your polite invitation to participate in the festivities of 
the second Centennial Anniversary of the incorporation of your 
town, you will i)lease accept my thanks. 

"Sec IJancrod'.s History of United States. 



91 

T regret that my engagements will prevent me from being 
present on that joyous occasion. 

That the good town of Barnstable may enjoy Heaven's rich- 
est blessings for many centuries yet to come, is the sincere wish 
of your much obliged friend. 

DAVID WILDER. 

From the Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

Secretary's Office, i 
Boston, August 3lst, 1839. ] 
I esteem it a most distinguished honor to have been invited 
to the Centennial Festival of your ancient town ; and it is with 
no ordinary regret that I feel constrained to forego the pleasure 
of being present. 

In token of my heartfelt interest in the occasion, and my re- 
spect for the people of the Cape, I ask leave to submit the ac- 
companying sentiment. 

Your obedient servant, 

JOHN P. BIGELOW. 
The thirteen towns of Cape Cod — Their hardy sons, in the 
pursuits of peace, or the conflicts of war, have nobly upheld 
the thirteen National Stripes, on every sea. The nation recog- 
nizes, with pride and honor, their enterprise and bravery. 



The day after the celebration which was as love- 
ly as the preceding, our friends from abroad embark- 
ed in the Steamer Bangor, at 9 o'clock, and return- 
ed homeward, amid the loud echo of cannon and 
the silent prayer for their prosperity and happiness. 
May our posterity, at the next centennial have as 
much reason to rejoice, and as many, and as good 
friends to reciprocate the joy with them, as we have 
had at this. 



92 

INTENDED FOR THE DINNER, AT THE 

CeiitcBftiiial Celcliratioii at I{arii»»tablc. 

CY A NATIVE. 

I would not breath my latest sigh, 

Upon a foreign strand, 
And sink into my final rest, 

Within a distant land ; — 
No, rather let my last repose 

Be on my native shore, 
Where the wild sea-bird's frctiuent note, 

Blends with the ocean's roar. 

It is not that in other climes, 

I would not like to rove, 
Where fragrant flowers, and warbling birds, 

i'erfume and deck tlie grove ; 
Oh no ! for life then hastens on 

Serenely to its end, 
And with dear friends 't were paradise. 

Existence there to spend. 

But yet this barren sandy soil 

A cradle was to me, 
And cooling breezes fann'd my brow. 

From yonder swelling sea : — 
Therefore when death shall come to me. 

As come full soon he will, 
I'd meet him here, amid these scenes 

That speak of boyhood still. 



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